How to Vet Industry PR Claims
- Author: Knvul Sheikh
- Full Title: How to Vet Industry PR Claims
- Type: #snippet✂️
- Document Tags: #sci_comms
- URL: https://www.theopennotebook.com/2019/03/26/how-to-vet-industry-pr-claims/?utm_source=The+Open+Notebook&utm_campaign=39b5e6f6e3-Master+Class+3%3A+How+To+Spot+Hype+-+Day+1&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_94b4f65b87-39b5e6f6e3-550771797
Highlights
- I usually start with someone to whom the discovery or technology would be useful—so, say, a potential customer. If a company that uses satellites to take pictures of Earth says, “Our data would be really useful to oil companies who want to watch how much oil arrives in a given port, or organizations interested in keeping track of deforestation,” I can call an oil company or a conservation organization, tell them about the data, and ask how they might use it. (View Highlight)
- My favorite tool (weapon?), however, is using consultants. Consulting companies task people with taking broad and deep looks at a given area of research or innovation. They talk to the key players in that sector—and those players are, sometimes, more honest with the consultants than they will be with a journalist. A good consultant can have a handle on a whole field, in addition to details about individual elements. Plus, they’re often more used to talking to non-specialists, so no awkwardness or sentences made just of jargon. (View Highlight)
- And I’m (slightly) more skeptical of government press releases than I am of academic ones. Federal agencies and organizations have a long history of obscuring information they don’t want the public to know about, or slanting true information they do release to avoid upsetting people or making themselves look bad. (View Highlight)
- Anything that sounds remotely hyperbolic: Firsts, bests, mosts, onlys. These milestones are easily tested with a call to an outside expert. (View Highlight)
- For me, it’s when important aspects of the data are left out, such as p-values, or when the press release announces success based on results citing an improvement, but the study has actually failed to significantly improve the primary endpoint. (View Highlight)
- I also think that virality itself is a red flag. Viral information has to be shallow and simple if it is to have the broad and quick appeal that makes something spread fast. (View Highlight)
- I, like a lot of science journalists, started out thinking of myself as a “translator,” whose job was to explain. But I don’t see it that way anymore. Explaining complicated topics in a way that a layperson can understand is just one of the tasks I now feel like I need to take on in a given story. I also need to find evidence that the story is, in fact, true. I need to look at funding, bias, influences, methods, applications, and who else is doing, has done, and will do similar work. (View Highlight)