kitchen grease fuel and a “good spirited row”
Fellow journalists: Ben Goldacre has just called us out. In his piece, “Don’t dumb me down,” Goldacre points out the disconnect reporters create between scientific research and accurate reporting. He talks about how reporters dumb down science so that key pieces of information used to validate a story, such as figures and statistics, are left out. He said the reason for this is reporters think the reader either won’t understand the data or won’t care. Because of these omissions, reporters are able to pass off hypotheses as axiom. The average reader wouldn’t know the difference.
Goldacre explains a conversation with a science journalist with whom he “had a good spirited row.” In the conversation, the journalist said she thinks scientists need to “get better at communicating to a lay audience.” Goldacre asks her, “Isn’t that your job?” In most professions, a person must be an authority to write on a subject. It seems that journalists can get off the hook merely for being people who write, as if the power of writing gives the journalist equal authority.
In “A billion people can be wrong,” Steve Rushin talks about how a false statistic was passed off by many papers to be truth. Newspapers such as Bloomberg News reported in 2006 that the Super Bowl is viewed by 1 billion worldwide. After checking with a research company, Rushin concludes that the figure is actually 93 million, 98 percent of which were in the U.S.
However, the NFL’s original statement said that the Super Bowl would be viewed by “a potential audience of a billion people.” As mentioned in “Don’t dumb me down,” reporters took this hypothesis of a potential number and rewrote it as a fact. This fact error should have been caught by editors. Rushin describes several other instances in sports in which untruths are printed and accepted as truths. Don’t newspapers get in trouble for printing false statements, even if they were obtained from a PR person?
After reading about the editing mistakes prevalent in both of the aforementioned stories, I chose to read, “Who would want to be a copy editor?” Ann Auman discusses the plight of copy editors. Copy editors are treated as “second-class citizens” who tolerate lower pay, little respect and must work “lousy” hours, but in order to get this job, Auman said they need to know be multi-talented and have a thick skin.
The job of a copy editor is so much less glamorous than that of a journalist. For instance, journalists get a pat on the back when they crack open a story and bring attention to that publication, but there is no reward for a copy editor who catches a big mistake in a story, saving the newspaper’s behind. It’s just assumed that it’s part of a copy editor’s job. With so many facts that a copy editor needs to check, such as Super Bowl statistics and scientific data, who would want to be a copy editor? The job seems masochistic.
Case Study:
In the story “Violent crime increases in Gainesville,” the author repeatedly used “saw” to explain that the city had an increase. For example, the first sentence begins: “The city of Gainesville saw a 19 percent increase…” I think that this is bland writing, and inaccurate. Cities cannot see.
In class, I originally defended the use of percentages in news stories. Another student argued that percentages aren’t necessary and can be misleading, such as the article’s mention that murder rates doubled, when in fact it only increased by 1. I agree that percentages can be misleading, and figures can be given for the reader to decipher for themselves.
However, for the sake of readers relating to a story, I still think sometimes the inclusion of percentages can be useful. When a reader reads a story and then relates that information to a friend, he or she is not going to say, “Violent crime in Gainesville has risen from 460 to 534.” It would be more realistic and better relatable for a person to say “Violent crime in Gainesville has risen 16 percent.”
Story Idea:
I was looking at Target.com and I came across a video featuring a girl named “Tacee” who converts cars to run on vegetable oil. Alternative energy has become such a trend, but how is this trend attainable? I’ve heard people talking about wanting to convert their cars to run on peanut oil, but how can someone actually go through with it? How much does it cost?
I would start out by talking to professors at the Florida Institute for Sustainable Energy, such as Mark Brown. I would want to know if there are drawbacks to driving a car that is run on vegetable oil. He might be able to put me in touch with a mechanic in town who converts cars to run on vegetable oil.
Mark Brown
Associate Professor in Environmental Engineering Sciences
Phone: (352) 392-2309
Email: mtb@ufl.edu
I would then track down a mechanic in town who knows how to convert cars. What cars work the best? How much does the service cost? What are the benefits and drawbacks? How many miles to the gallon on average does a car that runs on vegetable oil get?
Next, I would contact Freedom Fuels, Inc., a local company that sells biodiesel. I would ask about what cars qualify to be converted to run on biodiesel, and the best way to go about finding one of these cars.
Telephone 352/215-7265
352/226-4877
I would next want to get in touch with a person in Gainesville who has converted their car to run on vegetable oil, besides the owners of Freedom Fuel, Inc. How much money a month do they save? Where do they get the vegetable oil from? Can you make it yourself? I’ve heard that the grease can be obtained from restaurants, but which restaurants in Gainesville are willing to give you their kitchen grease? I would also like to know the downsides, such as what type of car troubles occur that differ from cars that run on gas.
In a print version, I would run a recipe for biodiesel as a sidebar. I would run the story at about 20-25 inches. For both an online and print version, the story would need attractive photos. The pictures that could not fit in the print version could run online. I would also link to the Freedom Fuel, Inc. Web site.
