returning the favour

Throughout this Freaky Fridayesque role reversal, I’ve been wondering how things would go if the journalists who have been teaching me their trade were to spend a few weeks in a university department.

To be fair, the reporters on the Times Higher already regularly visit campuses around the country. The UK is divided between them, so that each reporter is responsible for an area (e.g. Scotland & Wales) and any stories that emerge from universities within it. They visit academics, field zealous invites to openings of new buildings, and basically get acquainted with researchers and management at each institution. This is in addition to their duties on government policy, features, university rankings and keeping an eye on play (foul or otherwise) within the sector.

Anyhow, I digress.

I have come to the conclusion that the British Science Association or some other body must develop a life-swap scheme for hacks to work with scientists in their institutions. We all know that hosting a French exchange partner is infinitely more comfortable than going to stay with Sylvie and her parents in urban Strasbourg and joining in with their weird ways.

If press people spent a few weeks in carefully chosen labs and departments, they could see the painstaking attention to detail that researchers pay by default. The weeks that go into planning studies and the controls put in place to ensure that we’re measuring exactly the thing under study. The further weeks spent analysing the data and the conservatism inherent in interpreting it. And then the reporting of only what has been found, with a tentative foray into its implications and the reluctance to boast of What This Means (ok, except when it comes to writing the grant proposals).

They would see that the peer review process is more than just ‘showing your work to your mates’ (I’m still keeping the faith that that comment was tongue-in-cheek). They would see the ethical controls and contextualisation and confidentiality and the grand scale of decent research and that one or two voices alone do not tell a story.