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A survey of just more than 1,000 reporters and public information officers – 664 reporters and 415 PIOs – shows reporters both in the U.S. and other parts of the world listing medicine and health as the scientific subject of most interest to their readers.

The survey by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and its EurkeaAlert! science-news website shows U.S. reporters listing stem cells and cloning, psychology and neuroscience, technology, and, in fifth place, environment as being of most interest to their audiences. Non-U.S. reporters pointed also to medicine and health as the topic of most interest, but then listed environment, climate change, natural disasters, and animals in that order.

Getting high-quality graphics and images and finding well-spoken scientists to explain an issue were high priorities for the reporters and PIOs responding to the poll. Reporters said their most important challenge, as with other news stories, involves beating their competitors, including their own audiences, to the story. They pointed also to challenges in judging the trustworthiness of research and researchers, convincing editors to run their science news stories, and "keeping my job or continuing to cover science as my organization keeps down-sizing (cutting staff)."

Reporters responding to the AAAS survey said "excessive public relations hype" and scientific uncertainty or ambiguous findings contribute most negatively to public confidence in the integrity of science, along with conflicts between science and social values, morality or politics and financial conflicts of interest. Reporters indicated that slow responses to media queries from PIOs are their top pet peeve.

PIOs also pointed to excessive hype as the biggest factor in leading to a lack of trust in science, but the PIOs pinned that responsibility on the reporters and not on their own hyping of scientific findings.

To read the complete survey, go to http://www.eurekalert.org/images/release_graphics/E_survey2006.pdf (108 kB).