John Oliver

John Oliver in the video ‘Scientific Studies’ mentions that the science we all respect and have so much of faith in is getting demolished in peoples minds due to how media exaggerates every point. In the video he gives us numerous examples of how ridiculously certain facts are put across. He mentions that “not everything science tells is bullshit, but all bullshit is interpreted as science”. At the very beginning we see how much hard work a scientist goes through as Brian Nosek mentions “ his success as a scientist depends on him publishing his findings and publishing as frequently as possible in the most prestigious outlets he can”.

My understanding of this news satire showed to us by John Oliver helps me to come to a consensus as to how media can manipulate the thought process of people by featuring talks on facts which is put forward to the audience in the name of science. It also helps me to get a better understanding as to how influencing media can get to a point. A few issues as to how the media is showcasing news mentioned by John Oliver is mentioned below with examples from the video:

1.      The first issue which he mentions is people are starting to mistrust science due to the way media is showing it to people. An example is, drinking a glass of red wine is equivalent to spending one hour at the gym which is ridiculous.

 

2.       The second issue which he finds in the way media is portraying facts is that media showcases information without researching in detail about a particular event. An example is of this statement is driving dehydrated is equivalent to driving drunk which was just of twelve people. This was not reported in any news channel and science has not proven this. This is news which can be understood by using common sense.

 

Last but not the least are the challenges John Oliver mentions scientists face in the video:

 

A.     Certain scientific studies may be equal or subtly biased because scientists have a lot of pressure built on them to come up with eye catching positive results.

 

B.      Another major issue is P-Hacking which scientists face a problem with.

 

C.      Elizabeth Irons from science exchange mentions in the video mentions about replication studies by scientists which are under appreciated, the do not get published and no one wants to do them.