nationality

Nationality of news

VM

Oct 9, 2012 — 1 min read

Just saw this news-tweet by the Hindustan Times:

Indian scientist discovers giant super-massive black holes http://t.co/s3Qm4OoF #ht

— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) October 9, 2012

Clicking on the link and opening the news-report, I see that it was a team of scientists led by one of Indian-origin who made the discovery. Moreover, the existence of supermassive black holes has been known for a long time now, so saying “Indian scientist discovers giant supermassive black holes” is misleading.

This tendency to focus on the nationality of the leading researcher behind the discovery is detrimental to science journalism. It seems as if the nationality had a bearing on the development being reported. What if the person’s nationality was unavailable? Would the development still have been reported? Is anyone responsible looking at if the development merits reporting? If so, why aren’t other similar developments being reported?

Further: this shouldn’t be considered an instance of science journalism at all. If there are any surveys out there looking at the ratio of science news in a newspaper or on the website against the total quanta of all the news that the publication reports, such articles shouldn’t be considered in the account of the former.

(Also, if you observe, the last three paragraphs have become a staple-insertion in most posts, articles, reports, etc., concerning the discovery of supermassive black holes.)

Justice delayed but a ton of bricks await

From 'SC declines Ramdev, Patanjali apology; expresses concern over FMCGs taking gullible consumers ‘up and down the garden path’', The Hindu, April 10, 2024: The Supreme Court has refused to accept the unconditional apology from Patanjali co-founder Baba Ramdev and managing director Acharya Balkrishna for advertising medical products

Feel the pain

Emotional decision making is in many contexts undesirable – but sometimes it definitely needs to be part of the picture, insofar as our emotions hold a mirror to our morals. When machines make decisions, the opportunity to consider the emotional input goes away. This is a recurring concern I'm

Cheers for everyone but the bustard

Behold, the legerdemain of spinning bad news into good: Setting aside the meaningless headline, we have a lede (and the rest of the article, for that matter) that claims the Supreme Court of India "struck" a fine balancing act between the transition to renewable energy and protecting the

It's the little things

'What Muslim Women Face Every Day at Work', The Wire, April 4, 2024: [Nisha] Shah, who prays five times a day, says such Islamophobia at the workplace – amongst highly educated Indian youth – has become more audacious. She says her two-three prayer breaks are shorter than the frequent smoke

Read more

Justice delayed but a ton of bricks await

Feel the pain

Cheers for everyone but the bustard

It's the little things