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It Ain´t Necessarily So: How Media Make and Unmake the Scientific Picture of Reality

David Murray

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Description for It Ain´t Necessarily So: How Media Make and Unmake the Scientific Picture of Reality Hardback. Num Pages: 256 pages. BIC Classification: JFD; KNTJ. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 234 x 162 x 20. Weight in Grams: 525.
Airplane crashes. The AIDS epidemic. Presidential election polls and voting results. Global warming. The latest cancer scare. All these news stories require scientific savvy first, to report, and then—for news consumers—to understand. It Ain't Necessarily So cuts through the miasma surrounding media reporting of scientific studies, surveys, and statistics. Whether the problem is bad science, media politics, or a simple lack of information or knowledge, this book gives news consumers the tools to penetrate the hype and dig out the facts. Don't stop flying, run to the doctor, or change your diet before reading It Ain't Necessarily So.

Product Details

Format

Hardback

Publication date

2001

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield United States

Number of pages

256

Condition

New

Number of Pages

256

Place of Publication

Lanham, MD, United States

ISBN

9780742510951

SKU

V9780742510951

Shipping Time

Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days

Ref

99-15

About David Murray

David Murray is the director of research at the Statistical Assessment Service (STATS). Joel Schwartz is an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and is the author of several books. S. Robert Lichter is co-director of the nonpartisan Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) and co-author of over ten books, including Peepshow (ISBN 0742500101). All three authors live ... Read more

Reviews for It Ain´t Necessarily So: How Media Make and Unmake the Scientific Picture of Reality

Excellent and devastating new book. . . . Provides a real education on media fraud, which is infinitely more important than media bias.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This title offers tools to assist in understanding what and how media reports.
Ann Arbor News
Risk and uncertainty plague our daily lives, especially when they drive media headlines. But ... Read moresavvy consumers of news have a new ally with the appearance of this timely and entertaining read that manages to take the process apart and show us the guts of how news is really made.
John D. Graham, director, Harvard Center for Risk Analysis David Murray, Joel Schwartz, and Robert Lichter look beneath the surface of today's journalism and find narrative 'templates' that reflect journalists' ideologies and world views—which are often very different from that of readers, listeners, and viewers. In It Ain't Necessarily So, they show how this results in sloppy reporting, misleading impressions, and the propagation of downright lies. This book helps consumers of journalism make sense of the news—even when the journalists have made nonsense of the statistics.
Michael Barone, senior writer, U.S. News & World Report; co-author, The Almanac of American Politics One of the greatest dangers to good public policy is bad reporting on science. It abounds. In this important new book, the authors explore why the media has such a tough time getting the story straight on scientific research. Better yet, they expertly demystify the process, showing consumers why they often get an adulterated media product with little relationship to reality.
James K. Glassman, American Enterprise Institute Fake statistics flood the news media these days. This book is the essential antidote.
John Leo, U.S. News & World Reports Today agenda-driven social pressures can cloud the media's presentation of the complex enterprise of science. With splendid insight, Murray et al. clear the biases in a powerful and timely primer that leaps the chasm of ignorance to show the facts of science.
Sallie Baliunas, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Readers from all walks of life will acquire a more critical eye from this thought-provoking examination of how science gets served up for our early-morning reading and postprandial evening news.
Publishers Weekly
Recommended reading for all members of the news media audience.
Skeptical Inquirer
The authors are respected critics of science reporting. The authors commendably ground their ideas in previous scholarship and provide helpful annotations within chapters. Highly recommended for academic journalism collections serving upper-division undergraduates through faculty and for professional and public libraries.
CHOICE
The authors do a fine, well-researched job in shining a light on the problems of the reader should beware.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
An impressive piece of media criticism, more serious-minded and rigorous than sloppy and alarmist reporting on science deserves, and surprisingly readable.
The Weekly Standard
The book offers a solid critique of the way data-based reports and studies are presented in the media.
Idaho Statesman
It Ain't Necessarily So details how many of the 'facts' that drive sensational claims derive from how numbers are defined.
Wall Street Journal Asia
The authors' analysis of what kinds of misreports were made is solid, and their understanding of the pressures on reporters is profound.
The Maui News
I recommend that everyone take time to read this book.
Joseph Endres, The Endres Group
Inform
Riveting!
Philanthropy
The commentaries on stories are measured and convincing.
Times Literary Supplement
Well-written and carefully researched . . . a valuable addition to earlier studies of media and science.
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
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Goodreads reviews for It Ain´t Necessarily So: How Media Make and Unmake the Scientific Picture of Reality

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It Ain´t Necessarily So: How Media Make and Unmake the Scientific Picture of Reality

David Murray

Product Details

Goodreads reviews for It Ain´t Necessarily So: How Media Make and Unmake the Scientific Picture of Reality

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