Year: 1996
Type: editorial
Abstract: It was scheduled for 8:15 AM on a Friday morning, yet almost 900 people dragged themselves out of bed to attend the plenary session of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry's annual meeting last May in Atlanta. The keynote speaker was Miles OBrien, Cable News Network's only science correspondent, and his lecture was entitled "The Geek Factor: Why Network Television Doesn't Cover Science." When the conference organizers marveled at the extraordinary turnout, OBrien wryly observed that if you call scientists by a derogatory name, they almost always show up to find out why. Apparently, it goes with being an experimentalist. OBrien has no formal training in math or science, yet once he discovered the secrets to a successful story, opportunities that other reporters long ago eschewed quickly became his full-time job at CNN. In OBrien's opinion, a good science piece for television needs three ingredients. First and foremost, as he puts it, "It must appeal ...
Source: Chemical & Engineering News
Author: BRUCE GANEM
Institution: Cornell University
Language: English
Topic: Journalism and Media Studies
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2333213496