10 - What every scientist should know about the mass media

Summary

The Beijing Olympic Games opened in August 2008, the culmination of a year-long news agenda following China's bid to mount a great sporting event to symbolize its arrival on the world stage. When the games finally started with a spectacular ceremony, the world expected to settle down to 3 weeks of benign Corinthian rivalry.

But the world is an unpredictable place. Just as global media attention was focused on Beijing, a hot war erupted on the southern borders of Russia and, for several days, vicious fighting broke out between Russia and the Republic of Georgia. Television pictures of synchronized ranks of Chinese drummers and dancers were rapidly replaced by rumbling tanks, reporters in front of bombed-out flats with grief stricken civilians mourning their already dead, Russian planes banking steeply with exhaust gas streaks as rockets crashed to Earth; all the shocking and yet familiar imagery of medium-level conflict. This sort of thing is always with us; it comes from Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and occasionally from places like Georgia.

Modern communication technology and efficient corporate media organization meant that pictures and reports of the fighting were beamed into homes and onto news-stands across the globe within hours of the conflict starting. The coverage was staggeringly comprehensive; reports came in from both sides and from a wide range of sites. The international mass media pulled out all the stops to inform the global audience of what was going on, the long-planned media assault on the Beijing games was disrupted and resources re-deployed at staggering speed. But such rapid reaction has a downside. […]