Scientists as Mass Media Sources

b Since C.P. Snow postulated the gap between scientific and literary cultures back in the 1950s.l science journalists have emphasized the "chasm" that many of them perceive between themselves and their scientific sources. Tradition has it that scientists and journalists simply d o not get along, that on the few occasions they d o come together, the encounters are tense ones. The science reporter is likely to lay part of the blame for this perceived state of affairs a t the feet of the scientists. arguing that, among other problems, the average scientist encounters a journalist so rarely that he or she has little understanding of or sympathy for the news process. Such a scientist. they suggest, regards the press as a n apparition and, if given a choice, would avoid contact with journalists. In her book about the handful of scientists who have become media "stars" in the United States, Rae Goodell encapsulates the science writer's vision of the naive scientist: