Genotype or Geno-hype?
Winnipeg, Manitoba, May 19, 2004

Why do science stories create so much hype?

Some scientific discoveries get a lot of play in the media and really become big stories, but it seems that the initial splash is all that matters. This is a problem for long-term research. Science is a long slow process that carries on after the presses cool down. Why the hype?

Timothy Caulfield suggests that funding agencies like to increase publicity and, in turn, justify spending public money on research. "What's happened, I think, is that we, as a society, have created an environment where funding agencies dedicated to doing important basic research find it necessary to sell their research. Not only in a way that is perhaps hyped or with a short-term focus, but also in a way that over-emphasizes potential commercial benefit."

Véronique Morin recalls the Human Genome Project, which was big news for a little while but then quietly vanished from public view, just like the acid rain issue did in the 1980s. "There was a big splash and it was covered for a while and it was subject to the 'hoopla effect'. At first, we were all, like, 'wow' and after a few weeks there was a vacuum. There were no more stories about this topic, or not on the front page, at least."

Alexandra Paul says this is typical of media writers. What they do is often only a brief summary of a complex issue. You need constant excitement to draw a reader into the story. "Talk about shock and awe; I've been in enough newsrooms late at night when they write up headlines. They're trying to figure out what will attract readers’ attention. They think the bigger, the better."