Science journalism for development in the Global South: A systematic literature review of issues and challenges

Abstract

Based primarily on a systematic review of the relevant literature between 2000 and 2017, this article reflects on the state of journalism about science in developing countries, with a focus on its issues, challenges and implications for their developmental processes and causes. Five major themes emerge from our analysis: (a) heavy dependence on foreign sources, especially the media of the Global North; (b) the low status of domestic science news in newsrooms; (c) uncritical science reporting that easily lends itself to influences of non-science vested interests; (d) tight grip of politics on science journalism; and (e) ineffective relationships between science and journalism. We will demonstrate that, while some of these problems exist in the North, they can have far more severe consequences on the progress of the South, where news plays an almost exclusive role in informing and engaging laypeople with science and its socio-cultural, economic and political implications.

Climate journalism in a changing media ecosystem: Assessing the production of climate change‐related news around the world

“…An international survey of 592 science journalists from all continents found that 43% believed that their role was “to inform”, 23% “to translate complex material”, and 13% “to educate”; less than 10% saw thought their role entailed “mobilising or entertaining the public” or being a “public watchdog” (Bauer et al, 2013b, p. 24). The rare items of scholarship on science journalists in the Global South have generally demonstrated a “scarcity of critical science reporting” (Nguyen et al, 2020, p. 980). Similarly, a survey of more than 60 climate journalists from India, Germany, Switzerland, the US, and the UK identified the presence of a common transnational “interpretive community” in support of the mainstream consensus on anthropogenic climate change and had more traditional self‐perceptions as explainers of a complex phenomenon (Brüggemann & Engesser, 2014), although no similarities or differences between the countries were discussed 3…”

“…This is not only true in relation to the above‐mentioned featuring of skeptic sources but also regarding the proportion of foreign, international, and transnational sources in different countries’ climate‐related news (cf. Nguyen et al, 2020).…”

Science Coverage: What Does the Audience Want and Really Need? Exploring Media Consumption in Ukraine

“…According to Dickson (2005), democratic dialogue on science-related matters is critical for modern societies; hence, providing reliable information in an accessible manner is an essential prerequisite for this to occur. Moreover, Nguyen and Tran (2019, p. 973) argue that in developing countries, science journalism plays an almost exclusive role in informing and engaging laypeople with science and its sociocultural, economic and political implications.…”

“…‘The organizations, the science journalists they employ, and science itself have long been comfortable with relatively superficial understandings of audience’ (Dunwoody, 2007, p. 241). Recently, much of the research into how science is communicating to broad public and what the audience thinks and feels about science reportage has been mainly conducted in West Europe (e.g., de Semir, 2010; Irwin, 2001; Scharrer et al, 2016) and Northern America (e.g., Brossard, 2013; Dunwoody, 2007; Mooney & Kirshenbaum, 2009; Szu et al, 2017) with some exceptions regarding other regions (e.g., Massarani, 2014; Nguyen & Tran, 2019). Noticeably, there is a fundamental lack of knowledge on how people in Ukraine perceive science-related matters presented by the media within local socio-historical, political and economic contexts in which they operate.…”

Articulating Statistics in Science News in Arab Newspapers: The Cases of Egypt, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia

“…These issues continue to be essential despite changes in the media ecology and the emergence of social media as the traditional (legacy) news media continue to be the central link between the public and science (Long 1995;Nguyen and McIlwaine 2011;Nguyen and Tran 2019). Therefore, gaps and flaws in the reporting of science news by mainstream media continue to give a detrimental effect on levels of public understanding of science.…”