Martin W. Angler @martinangler is a freelance science journalist based in Italy who mainly works for international news media. While he specialises in science storytelling, he also loves debunking false news about science and writing investigative stories. Martin is also the editor-in-chief of Eurac research’s science blog network. His textbooks on science journalism, blogging and storytelling have been published by Routledge and Springer. He runs workshops on science writing for academics and young journalists.
Contributor: Martin Angler
Sander van der Linden on how psychological inoculation protects against false news
Sander van der Linden, Ph.D., is Professor of Social Psychology in Society and Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge. Professor van der Linden, we have seen many attempts to debunk climate and health disinformation. How well do fact checks fare? Sander van der Linden: ...
Why hype in press releases is ineffective – and how to fix it?
Press releases sometimes exaggerate scientific findings and omit study limitations. Scientists are investigating why, and testing ways to make them more accurate.
A scientist’s opinion: interview with Ionica Smeets on hype in press releases
Interview with Ionica Smeets, professor of science communication at Leiden University, the Netherlands. Prof. Smeets, how do you feel when you encounter buzzwords such as 'groundbreaking', 'world first' and 'landmark study' in a press release? Ionica Smeets: One of the first things a journalist should realise is that press releases tend to overstate findings using ...
A scientist’s opinion: interview with Maike Winters on hype in press releases
Interview with Maike Winters from the Karolinska Institute. Press releases are clearly shorter than the studies they describe. What is wrong with leaving out some aspects of studies? Maike Winters: We saw that studies' limitations, funding sources and conflicts of interest are frequently omitted from press releases. But they are needed to convey a complete ...
A scientist’s opinion: interview with Petroc Sumner on hype in press releases
Interview with Petroc Sumner, psychologist and co-director of the InSciOut project on science in the media. What do we know about how the quality of press releases influences news stories? Petroc Sumner: There is a strong correlation between the quality of press releases and the quality of the news stories that are based on them. Whether ...
Christina Pagel: “You have to accept that people will attack you and you cannot defend yourself”
Interview with Christina Pagel, Professor of Operational Research (a branch of applied mathematics) at University College London (UCL) and Director of the UCL Clinical Operational Research Unit. Since May 2020, she has been a member of Independent SAGE, a group of scientists working together to provide independent scientific advice on how to support Britain’s recovery ...
Pia Lamberty: “This is the price you pay, but I still think it’s worth it”
Interview with Pia Lamberty, social psychologist and co-director of the Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy (CeMAS). As a psychologist, she has been researching why people believe in conspiracies and what consequences this worldview entails. Her non-fiction book “Fake Facts - How Conspiracy Theories Determine Our Thinking”, published with Katharina Nocun in May 2020, was ...
Scientists under fire: threats and attacks after speaking in public
When scientists speak out publicly on Covid-19 counter-measures, they expose themselves to online and real-life attacks, threats and abuse. Some have developed very different coping strategies.
