It Ain't Necessarily So: How Media Make and Unmake the Scientific Picture of Reality

Airplane crashes. The AIDS epidemic. Presidential election polls and voting results. Global warming. The latest cancer scare. All these news stories require scientific savvy first, to report, and then—for news consumers—to understand. It Ain't Necessarily So cuts through the miasma surrounding media reporting of scientific studies, surveys, and statistics. Whether the problem is bad science, media politics, or a simple lack of information or knowledge, this book gives news consumers the tools to penetrate the hype and dig out the facts. Don't stop flying, run to the doctor, or change your diet before reading It Ain't Necessarily So.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Introduction Part 2 The Ambiguity of News Chapter 3 The News That Isn't There: Stories that Are—And Aren't—Covered Chapter 4 Much Ado about Little: Making News Mountains Out of Research Molehills Part 5 The Ambiguity of Measurement Chapter 6 Bait and Switch: Understanding "Tomato" Statistics Chapter 7 The Perils of Proxies: Is There a There There? Chapter 8 Is The Glass Half Empty or Half Full? A Look at Statistics from Both Sides Now Chapter 9 Polls Apart: The Gertrude Stein Approach to Making Sense of Contradictory Surveys Chapter 10 The Reality and Rhetoric of Risk: Telling It Like It Is— and Isn't Chapter 11 Distinguishing Reports From Reality Part 12 The Ambiguity of Explanation Chapter 13 Blaming the Messenger, Ignoring the Message Chapter 14 Tunnel Visions and Blind Spots: The Danger of Hedgehog Interpretations Chapter 15 Conclusion: "Hard to Tell": Journalism, Science, and Public Policy—An Inherent Conflict?

About the Author :
David Murray is the director of research at the Statistical Assessment Service (STATS). Joel Schwartz is an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and is the author of several books. S. Robert Lichter is co-director of the nonpartisan Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) and co-author of over ten books, including Peepshow (ISBN 0742500101). All three authors live in the Washington, DC, metro area.

Review :
Excellent and devastating new book. . . . Provides a real education on media fraud, which is infinitely more important than media bias. This title offers tools to assist in understanding what and how media reports. Risk and uncertainty plague our daily lives, especially when they drive media headlines. But savvy consumers of news have a new ally with the appearance of this timely and entertaining read that manages to take the process apart and show us the guts of how news is really made. David Murray, Joel Schwartz, and Robert Lichter look beneath the surface of today's journalism and find narrative 'templates' that reflect journalists' ideologies and world views—which are often very different from that of readers, listeners, and viewers. In It Ain't Necessarily So, they show how this results in sloppy reporting, misleading impressions, and the propagation of downright lies. This book helps consumers of journalism make sense of the news—even when the journalists have made nonsense of the statistics. One of the greatest dangers to good public policy is bad reporting on science. It abounds. In this important new book, the authors explore why the media has such a tough time getting the story straight on scientific research. Better yet, they expertly demystify the process, showing consumers why they often get an adulterated media product with little relationship to reality. Fake statistics flood the news media these days. This book is the essential antidote. Today agenda-driven social pressures can cloud the media's presentation of the complex enterprise of science. With splendid insight, Murray et al. clear the biases in a powerful and timely primer that leaps the chasm of ignorance to show the facts of science. Readers from all walks of life will acquire a more critical eye from this thought-provoking examination of how science gets served up for our early-morning reading and postprandial evening news. Recommended reading for all members of the news media audience. The authors are respected critics of science reporting. The authors commendably ground their ideas in previous scholarship and provide helpful annotations within chapters. Highly recommended for academic journalism collections serving upper-division undergraduates through faculty and for professional and public libraries. The authors do a fine, well-researched job in shining a light on the problems of the reader should beware. An impressive piece of media criticism, more serious-minded and rigorous than sloppy and alarmist reporting on science deserves, and surprisingly readable. The book offers a solid critique of the way data-based reports and studies are presented in the media. It Ain't Necessarily So details how many of the 'facts' that drive sensational claims derive from how numbers are defined. The authors' analysis of what kinds of misreports were made is solid, and their understanding of the pressures on reporters is profound. I recommend that everyone take time to read this book. Riveting! The commentaries on stories are measured and convincing. Well-written and carefully researched . . . a valuable addition to earlier studies of media and science.