[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.24.2″ _module_preset=”default” da_disable_devices=”off|off|off” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” da_is_popup=”off” da_exit_intent=”off” da_has_close=”on” da_alt_close=”off” da_dark_close=”off” da_not_modal=”on” da_is_singular=”off” da_with_loader=”off” da_has_shadow=”on”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.24.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.24.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ header_4_font_size_tablet=”” header_4_font_size_phone=”” header_4_font_size_last_edited=”on|desktop” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
Who can we trust?<\/p>\n
Many friends have stopped reading or watching what is presented as \u201cnews\u201d, as the term \u201cinfotainment\u201d more accurately describes the news media now.\u00a0 It appears to aim at creating sensationalist entertainment,\u00a0 or pushing a particular political view, rather than accurately reporting relevant information.<\/p>\n
For example, almost 20 years ago I read an article from an overseas journal which stated that a New York Times reporter had been sacked after other newspapers showed he had fabricated his stories, and he defended himself by saying that was what he learnt from his fellow reporters \u2013 it\u2019s what they all did!\u00a0 When I spoke to people here in Australia about it, people didn\u2019t believe me, as our news media chose not to report it.\u00a0 (Jayson Blair resigned from The New York Times in May 2003 in the wake of the discovery of fabrication.)<\/p>\n
The son of a friend regularly cites what is reported in the popular press as \u201cscience\u201d to his dad; he trusts his outlook for life on Scientism.\u00a0 But the nature of what is reported as scientific research has changed during my lifetime.<\/p>\n
In my youth, I learnt that science papers were subject to rigorous peer review before being published, and findings would not be generally accepted until the results had been independently replicated by others.\u00a0 About 20 years ago, I became aware that had all changed, rigorous validation no longer applied.<\/p>\n
I recently read an article reporting a \u201creplication crisis\u201d in science.\u00a0 In 2005, John Ioannidis of Stanford University published a paper showing that most published research findings are false!\u00a0 In 2016 a survey by Nature<\/em> of 1,576 researchers found that more than 70 per cent had tried and failed to replicate experimental results from other labs but that journals had proved reluctant to publish such negative studies.<\/p>\n This trend is widespread in many areas; it extends to business organisations where reliability is crucially important, such as banks and airlines.<\/p>\n If people give more attention to appearances than reality, of seeming to do the \u201cright thing\u201d according to what is fashinable, rather than knowing and actually doing it, then who can we rely upon?<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Who can we trust? Background: Many friends have stopped reading or watching what is presented as \u201cnews\u201d, as the term \u201cinfotainment\u201d more accurately describes the news media now.\u00a0 It appears to aim at creating sensationalist entertainment,\u00a0 or pushing a particular political view, rather than accurately reporting relevant information. For example, almost 20 years ago […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-questions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27758"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29639,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27758\/revisions\/29639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/questionsandbelief.org\/sw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}