UK science press officers, professional vision and the generation of expectations

Abstract

Science press officers can play an integral role in helping promote expectations and hype about biomedical research. Using this as a starting point, this article draws on interviews with 10 UK-based science press officers, which explored how they view their role as science reporters and as generators of expectations. Using Goodwin’s notion of ‘professional vision’, we argue that science press officers have a specific professional vision that shapes how they produce biomedical press releases, engage in promotion of biomedical research and make sense of hype. We discuss how these insights can contribute to the sociology of expectations, as well as inform responsible science communication.

Exaggerations and Caveats in Press Releases and Health-Related Science News

“…We have no evidence that these small exaggerations (or message creep) represent conscious efforts to hype, and interviews with press officers show they feel a strong obligation to avoid hype [17]. Unintended subtle exaggerations may arise for other reasons such as trying to use simpler and more direct language with fewer words per sentence.…”

“…Unintended subtle exaggerations may arise for other reasons such as trying to use simpler and more direct language with fewer words per sentence. Moreover, within our data will be cases (especially in some examples of health advice given to readers) where exaggeration as defined here could be considered entirely appropriate rephrasing within the context of the press officers' professional vision [17]. In the other direction, our data doubtless include cases where strong statements–statements that would be considered hype by some readers–were not defined as exaggeration because they were already contained in the peer-reviewed journal article, which we employed as the best available baseline.…”

“…Press releases routinely condense complex scientific findings and theories into digestible packets, providing an efficient means for disseminating new science of interest to publics in a helpful form for journalists [17]. Information and quotes in a press release are highly likely to be included in related news [18].…”

“…Interviews with press officers [17] suggest it should be common to find such caveats and explanations at the end of press releases, because they are important information for news consumers with illnesses or considering changes to health-related behaviour. But caveats (e.g. '…”

In search of visual expertise: examining skilled vision in the work of news photo professionals

“…In addition to Grasseni's (2004) study of cattle breeders, the concept of skilled vision has been studied in various areas, such as medicine (Roepstorff, 2009), design and architecture (Turnbull, 2009). Also, the related concept of professional vision has been developed in Goodwin's studies of legal argumentation, archaeological excavations (Goodwin, 1994) and oceanographers (Goodwin, 1995) and later applied to a number of other professions, including science journalists (Samuel et al, 2017), maritime pilots (Hontvedt, 2015), architects (Styhre, 2010) and teachers (Sherin and Van Es, 2009).…”