Question: What are your views on Science in the news?

Megan Seymour answered on 17 Nov 2016:

News coverage of science is a positive thing because it gets people interested in science. As researchers, a lot of our work is funded by the government, so indirectly by the public who pay taxes to the government. With this in mind I think we have a responsibility to let the public know what it is we are doing with their money.
The problem is that in order to make news stories more eye-catching, results are often exaggerated, or reported out of context to make them seem more dramatic than they actually are. As scientists, we need to try to stop this happening, and as readers, people need to take time to read the evidence for themselves before they choose to believe the dramatic headlines.

If your question is about the ‘Science in the News’ coursework that some schools do- I remember having to do that too!
At the time it seemed like very hard work writing such a long essay- but its actually a very useful skill. Reading scientific literature and then writing your own review is something that we do fairly frequently as scientists to ‘set the scene’ for our own work.