Physics and the news media
Dear Readers,
Just a few lines concerning the issue of physics results with respect to communication and outreach.
The ever growing development of modern communication tools has changed the “scientific communication system” and unavoidably along with it our mentality as researchers. The immediate access to scientific information has changed more than just the time to publication. Today the preliminary and/or provisional results of ongoing research can reach the web before being fully crosschecked and completed. Sometimes the news spreads out around the world before a result is announced in a scientific meeting and much longer before the relative paper is peer reviewed and published. Such immediacy has many advantages, but also some drawbacks.
In the age of the Internet and the world wide web, scientific communication and outreach have obviously changed their features and means, scientific competition as well. We are now “forced” to announce our results through press releases, we nurture the media and the media have become a crucial and often rewarding ingredient of our scientific activity. Announcement, communication and transparency are essential duties for scientists, as well as dissemination of scientific culture at large. We must take advantage of the current modern communication system. But we must constantly be aware of its inherent dangers: over magnification, exploitation, distortion, misinterpretation, unforeseen implications, etc. What may be challenged in the end is our credibility, which is our major concern.
Luisa Cifarelli
European Physical Society President
