The skeptical community is very familiar with the phenomenon of pseudoscience. Pseudoscience (from the latin pseudo - fake) is something that claims to be science, but in fact does not follow the principles of science. There are many well followed topics in pseudoscience: perpetual motion, zero point energy, hexagonal water, ESP studies, intelligent design, and many more.
I was looking into a taxonomy of the sources of bunk, and of course pseudoscience was one of them. But I felt something was missing. There was no category in which to put the work of Glenn Beck, Fox News, or overly enthusiastic Local TV stations. While their stories sometimes fell into the usual categories (alternative medicine, pseudoscience, paranormal, etc), there were many that were obviously bunk, but more so because of the way the story was presented, rather than the actual story itself.
For example, the stories about the "ground zero mosque", constantly contained many factual inaccuracies, statements that were not verified or were taken out of context, and blatant insinuations. It's a pattern of inaccuracies designed not to rise to the level of conspiracy theory. It's designed to resemble journalism, so that it seems credible. But it does not follow the basic principles of journalism.
It's pseudojournalism.
We can identify pseudoscience by its deviation from the established principles of science: a lack of testable hypotheses, a lack of peer review, a lack of rigor. And by extension we can identify pseudojournalism by it's lack of adherence to journalistic ethics and standards:
http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp
The full code of standards is linked above, but there are four detailed sets of principles, which in outline are:Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty. Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist's credibility. Members of the Society share a dedication to ethical behavior and adopt this code to declare the Society's principles and standards of practice.
The most important of those is "Seek Truth and Report It", a set of principles that can be used as a checklist for determining if something is pseudojournalism or not:Seek Truth and Report It
Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.
Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible.
Minimize Harm
Ethical journalists treat sources, subjects and colleagues as human beings deserving of respect.
Act Independently
Journalists should be free of obligation to any interest other than the public's right to know.
Be Accountable
Journalists are accountable to their readers, listeners, viewers and each other.
If you can't tell if something is pseudojournalism, then go through this list. Does it meet the criteria? Is it accurate? Does it oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context? Do they give subjects of a story a fair opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing? Is their bias showing? Do they distinguish between advocacy and news reporting?Seek Truth and Report It
Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.
Journalists should:
- — Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible.
- — Diligently seek out subjects of news stories to give them the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing.
- — Identify sources whenever feasible. The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources' reliability.
- — Always question sources’ motives before promising anonymity. Clarify conditions attached to any promise made in exchange for information. Keep promises.
- — Make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context.
- — Never distort the content of news photos or video. Image enhancement for technical clarity is always permissible. Label montages and photo illustrations.
- — Avoid misleading re-enactments or staged news events. If re-enactment is necessary to tell a story, label it.
- — Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information except when traditional open methods will not yield information vital to the public. Use of such methods should be explained as part of the story
- — Never plagiarize.
- — Tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience boldly, even when it is unpopular to do so.
- — Examine their own cultural values and avoid imposing those values on others.
- — Avoid stereotyping by race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, geography, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance or social status.
- — Support the open exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.
- — Give voice to the voiceless; official and unofficial sources of information can be equally valid.
- — Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.
- — Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two.
- — Recognize a special obligation to ensure that the public's business is conducted in the open and that government records are open to inspection.
Pseudoscience can come from deliberate action, bias, scientific incompetence, of a combination of all three. Similarly pseudojournalism may be result of a media organization deliberately pushing a particular message (where they know they are wrong, but say it anyway), it may simply and unconsciously reflect their biases (where they think they are right, because it fits their world view), or their incompetence (they accept something as fact without verifying it).
Given the way the media feeds upon itself, the misrepresented or biased stories might be blindly parroted by the incompetent. The incompetent's stories, in turn, might cynically or gleefully be picked up and magnified by the biased, to support their own message or view of the world.
Pseudojournalism is more prevalent than pseudoscience. It's also arguably more serious, in that the misrepresentations of the pseudojournalist reach far more many minds than those of a pseudoscientist. If you are interested in promoting truth, science, and reason, then you would do well to give as much attention, if not more, to pseudojournalism as you do to pseudoscience.
References
JONATHAN CHAIT, July 22, 2010
The New Republic: The Pseudo-Journalist Method
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128688443
THE WOLF IN REPORTER'S CLOTHING:
THE RISE OF PSEUDO-JOURNALISM IN AMERICA
2004 Ruhl Lecture • University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication
By John S. Carroll, editor, Los Angeles Times
May 6, 2004 • http://jcomm.uoregon.edu/awards/ruhl/2004.php
http://www.todroberts.com/USF/pseudo-journalism.pdf
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