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lundish
January 11th, 2010, 12:35 AM
hi there,
please tell me how do you / how can you understand this topic "Image of science in the contemporary American mass media".



by American I mean the US , and by mass media - movies, tv series or tv news.

considering the rest I do not want to suggest anything.
give your opinion.

magmon
January 11th, 2010, 12:42 AM
"Doing" your homework =P?

Science is portrayed in TV and movies as a bunch of nerds mixing chemicals and typing into rediculously old computers.

NoaHall
January 11th, 2010, 12:44 AM
"Doing" your homework =P?

Science is portrayed in TV and movies as a bunch of nerds mixing chemicals and typing into rediculously old computers.

And someone who knows something about computers, can instantly hack into any device, by simply clicking buttons on a keyboard without knowing what they are typing.

FuturePilot
January 11th, 2010, 12:45 AM
"Doing" your homework =P?

Science is portrayed in TV and movies as a bunch of nerds mixing chemicals and typing into rediculously old computers.

That have green text that makes beepy noises as it scrolls ridiculously fast down the screen.

gsmanners
January 11th, 2010, 01:06 AM
In order of least to most accurate depiction:

1) Crime dramas
2) The History channel
3) Star Trek movies
4) "News" programs
5) Mythbusters
6) The NASA channel
7) [adult swim]

sudoer541
January 11th, 2010, 01:07 AM
That have green text that makes beepy noises as it scrolls ridiculously fast down the screen.

matrix?

lundish
January 11th, 2010, 01:15 AM
and how about "science" as a way of dealing with/ approaching problem and figuring out the solution ?

samjh
January 11th, 2010, 01:16 AM
In order of least to most accurate depiction:

1) Crime dramas
2) The History channel
3) Star Trek movies
4) "News" programs
5) Mythbusters
6) The NASA channel
7) [adult swim]

LOL

Crime dramas are definitely ROFLMAO-worthy. CSI is one of my least-liked TV programs. But putting up Star Trek as more realistic is... too far. :p

the yawner
January 11th, 2010, 02:01 AM
Science fiction has always played with the imagination of the masses. And the mass media is more keen to serve the magic of science than actual science itself.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/science_montage.png

starcannon
January 11th, 2010, 02:05 AM
hi there,
please tell me how do you / how can you understand this topic "Image of science in the contemporary American mass media".



by American I mean the US , and by mass media - movies, tv series or tv news.

considering the rest I do not want to suggest anything.
give your opinion.
The impression I get from our mass media is that science==magic.

gnomeuser
January 11th, 2010, 02:20 AM
Poorly.. overall the protrayal of science is extremely poor no matter where you go. If it isn't alien probing, it's crystal powers, anti-vaccination or creationism. I don't mean to pick on anyone specifically, America has one set of media problems relating to science where it is tabu to critize religion, here it is the same way with any kind of alternative treatment, other places have their own crutch.

There isn't a country today that does a sufficient job protraying science on all fronts. America used to have very good science protrayals available to them but today it is censored or downright unavailable. E.g. when is the last time anyone undertook a project in the popular understanding of science on the same scale as Carl Sagan's Cosmos.

On the flip side, America is also the source of the most currently popular science show, Mythbusters, which is a great source of learning how to do science (even if not all science ends with a TV friendly C4 boom in the real world it does teach valuable things such as isolating your results through double blinded testing). You also have a strong grassroots uprising amongst science fans providing 10-30 mins videos explaining science on YouTube (potholer54 (http://www.youtube.com/user/potholer54) is an excellent example hereof).

Overall I would say the protrayal is appallingly poor anywhere you go in the world.

Sporkman
January 11th, 2010, 02:49 AM
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9819/phd040609s.gif

betrunkenaffe
January 11th, 2010, 06:56 AM
http://www.cheater.com/Help_Answer.php?QID=56

If they won't, why are you?

lundish
January 12th, 2010, 11:04 AM
Well then,
if science is so important ( hard to argue otherwise ) then why there is so little intrest among public ?

Viva
January 12th, 2010, 11:10 AM
If they are anything like the world media(leftist), they'll love the scientists. They're both champagne socialists after all:mad: The climategate got very little coverage from the mainstream media except for a few conservative sources.

Ylon
January 12th, 2010, 12:19 PM
hi there,
please tell me how do you / how can you understand this topic "Image of science in the contemporary American mass media".
http://images.google.us/images?&q=scientist

Groucho Marxist
January 12th, 2010, 12:45 PM
"Doing" your homework =P?

Science is portrayed in TV and movies as a bunch of nerds mixing chemicals and typing into rediculously old computers.

Broadcast and cable networks are attempting to re-brand that image by making science-based jobs exciting or action-packed (CSI's, I'm looking at you). More often than not, it results in David Caruso looking smug, uttering a hilariously awful one-liner and removing his sunglasses.

Case in point;

Let's say there's an episode featuring a school shooting. David will walk on set, look at the crime scene, say something to the effect of "Looks like class is getting out early today."

$ sudo apt-get remove sunglasses
$ sudo apt-get install opening theme

samjh
January 12th, 2010, 01:40 PM
Well then,
if science is so important ( hard to argue otherwise ) then why there is so little intrest among public ?

Sounds like a question from a media studies or sociology class.

Do your own critical analysis, please. We're not your tutors. ;)

Sporkman
January 12th, 2010, 02:55 PM
Let's say there's an episode featuring a school shooting. David will walk on set, look at the crime scene, say something to the effect of "Looks like class is getting out early today."


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