Bad news is like sex – it sells. A headline like the old East German classic “Half the harvest safely gathered in” was never going to make it onto front pages in the West, where readers had a choice over which paper to buy, or in post-Communist Germany.
So perhaps it’s inevitable that scare stories about vaping greatly outnumber the positive ones in any significant sample of the world’s media.
And, of course, for every reasoned, careful and balanced report – and there a few of those out there – there are hundreds dashed off by journalists with no specialist knowledge but a desire to get the attention-grabbing headline in print quickly then on to the next story about something completely different. No specialist knowledge, and almost certainly no specialist science knowledge in particular. Sadly, not many scientists take up journalism as a career.
And sadly, it has to be said, not every scientist is as rigorous as they might be – those who write their press releases even less so.
Aidan Semmens – ECigIntelligence – 2022-07-21
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