A bit off topic
What journalists can learn from their mistakes during the pandemic
https://reutersinstitute.politics.o...ists-can-learn-their-mistakes-during-pandemic
[ UK journalists have embarked on a major critique of the performance of politicians and scientists in this pandemic. And rightly so. Tens of thousands of lives have been lost, our economy has slumped, and there are fears that the future of a whole generation has been blighted. But it’s only fair that we should also start to critique ourselves. How have we performed in our coverage of COVID-19? Where did we get it right and where did we make some of the same mistakes of which we accuse politicians and scientists?
This seminar is based on my professional opinion and experience in covering the pandemic, on off-the-record conversations with some of broadcasting’s most senior political and specialist journalists, on discussions with journalists on specialist publications and on some discussion with the scientists we have relied on and used... ]
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Too many PPEs, too few PPEs
So how did we cope with this story, when at its heart was complex science and, like the politicians, most of us have an arts and politics education?
Angela Merkel was a brilliant student of mathematics. Her doctorate was in quantum chemistry. How many of us even know what that is? In this pandemic, she read key science papers herself.
Boris Johnson has a degree in classics. He told the Commons Liaison Committee he had not actually read the scientific papers. He has since said he has read scientific papers... ]
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Data literacy matters
It was not just our profession’s lack of scientific knowledge which hampered us. We often didn’t understand data. Experts complain our profession regularly ‘mixed up the denominator’. If you don’t understand what they mean, maybe you are part of that problem. Experts said that 30% of people with COVID-19 may test negative. That was reported wrongly as 30% of negative tests being wrong. The risk of dying of COVID-19 was also confused. One way of looking at the problem is to ask what your chance of dying is. The other is to ask what your chance of getting it and then dying is. Two quite different things and they were sometimes confused... ]
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The academic backgrounds of political journalists are uncannily similar to those of politicians.
Let’s be frank, in a medical emergency you wouldn’t call on a single one of them. However, when I talked to specialist journalists, and scientists, they said they thought that political journalists got up to speed remarkably well in the circumstances. Global health expert Dr Michael Head told me, ‘There was an anxiety to get the story right. Journalists were very conscious of their public service role.’ .. ]
[ There is a widespread view that broadcasters sometimes sent the wrong journalists to press conferences. The heavyweight political editors pushed out the less well-known health stalwarts. One health specialist said, ‘ If you are a health specialist there are not normally many people splashing in your paddling pool. All of a sudden health is the only game in town.’
One scientist said to me that ‘flashy’ political correspondents understood very little about the scientific facts on days when the key points were about detailed scientific and data issues. So key questions were not asked. Specialist correspondents were passed over for attendance in favour of well-known political editors who didn’t have the in-depth knowledge needed... ]
[ Journalists need to learn they can’t always have a definitive answer to a question. As one expert told me, ‘Everyone in SAGE is disagreeing and cautious and disputing.’
Journalists have got to learn to cope with the concept of uncertainty. This error was made in the terrible reporting of MMR when some journalists totally misunderstood the significance of scientists saying nothing is risk-free. COVID-19 was a new virus and we were asking experts to give firm views when the experts themselves were learning every day.’ As Alastair McLellan put it, ‘We are all on a learning curve, even the expert journalists and the very best scientists in the world.’
However,
some of the errors made were caused by lack of understanding of basic statistics. Should every broadcaster run a course for its journalists in statistics? I think so. In my career, I have often been astounded by basic errors made in reporting something as obvious as percentages in a survey.
As one of the experts I consulted said, you don’t need a degree in statistics, ’
You need a critical mind.’ ]
