Fiona Fox
is chief executive of the Science Media Centre
Blog posts in total 12
Posts
Women scientists: don’t put them on air unless they’re the best
There is an industry consensus that there are too few women experts appearing as contributors to broadcast programmes.
'Churnalism': demonising PR is too simple
What has 'churnalism' got to do with the phone hacking scandal? Plenty, according to Chris Atkins in his support for the motion "This house believes news articles based on press releases should be marked 'advertorial'" at a recent debate at the Royal Statistical Society. Atkins opened by claim...
Media meltdown over nuclear threat
A week last Friday, in response to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, the Science Media Centre dropped every other story and started issuing comments from experts on earthquakes and tsunamis, warning them to prepare for days of back-to-back interviews. We forewarned our public health experts t...
The limits of transparency
Last Tuesday, a colleague called to say that the Science Media Centre's robust call for more openness from scientific advisers to government had made it into the Science and Technology Committee's report on scientific advice in emergencies. On Thursday, among an audience of more than a hundre...
Why Peter Sissons is wrong about BBC climate coverage
Peter Sissons' attack on political correctness at the BBC will probably resonate with some of my friends who work there. Sissons was not the only seasoned reporter insulted by the compulsory Safeguarding Trust course - though interestingly all the journalists I spoke to, like Sissons, had a more...
When does the vigorous defence of science become 'scientism'?
There's been lots of chat in my circles this week about the last Monday's Horizon presented by Paul Nurse, the Nobel prize winner and new head of the Royal Society. The programme, Science Under Attack, questioned whether mild-mannered climate scientists like Phil Jones at the Climate Research Un...
Climategate: too easy to blame the reporters
At the press briefing in the Science Media Centre (SMC) for the third and final inquiry into the 'Climategate' emails, Sir Muir Russell, chair of the review, dared to hope that a line may now be drawn under this particular row, if not the debate over climate change. But one row that has been ...
'He says/she says' just doesn't work for science
Ten years after the last polarised debate about GM, the coverage of two high-profile resignations from a committee of the Food Standards Agency set up to run a new national dialogue on the issue suggests we may be in for an unedifying re-run. Producers on BBC Radio 4's You and Yours and B...
The eerie electoral silence of scientific institutions
My mates have been confused by my sudden tendency to rant about Purdah - with most of them thinking I've suddenly taken against the Muslim and Hindu custom of women completely covering themselves up when they go out. But it's the other Purdah that has me so irate - the inexplicable, arbitr...
Blogs are not real journalism
Once again I've found myself defending journalism against its most ardent critics - journalists. I was at City University's School of Journalism to present the main findings of the Science Media Centre report on the future of science in the media. Not for the first time I sat next to brill...
Why Today is right about women presenters
Spare a thought for the Editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Ceri Thomas. Not because every day will be election day for the next month - with heightened scrutiny of his presenters' every smirk and cough. No, what I'm thinking about is the cacophony of allegations of misogyny you find if you...
Climate science doesn't need an easy ride
I was on the Media Show on Radio 4 last week, ostensibly to talk about how the BBC does science in the light of the BBC Trust's impartiality review. In the event Steve Hewlett, the show's feisty presenter, questioned me and Mary Hockaday, Head of the BBC newsroom, exclusively about the BBC's cli...
