Journalists are trained to avoid inaccuracy at all costs. After all, inaccuracies are counter to the very ethos of journalism, that being the truth. Sometimes; however, untruths can sometimes still get through, due to carelessness or ignorance of a niche topic or in the worst cases, bias. Many inaccuracies are on scientific topics, because most journalists are simply not scientists, but that is no excuse, because one must always properly research their story.
Both the Edmonton Sun and Edmonton Journal refer to the CERN supercollider as an "atom smasher". This is due to the practice of making newspaper articles acessible to the layman, most likely, or that "atom smasher" sounds more descriptive than the proper term, particle accelerator. Although the Large Hadron Collider at CERN does occasionally "smash atoms" (more accurately colliding lead ions), it usually collides streams of protons, which are subatomic particles which in part make up atoms. The problem with the inaccuracy, partial though it may be, is that it is vague wording. A few other things could be referred to as "atoms smashers", such as any nuclear bomb, or even a nuclear power plant. A nuclear reaction involves the collision of a neutron with a fissionable atom, which splits it, releasing energy. For the ambiguity of the term, newspapers should not refer to particle colliders as "atom smashers".
Other topics of scientific literacy are a concern for newspapers. Last year there was a considerable media panic about the supposed dangers of ecstasy, stemming from the deaths of a few girls who took it at a party, and another girl at West Edmonton Mall. The Journal in particular had a headline that stated "Ecstasy kills two teens"
This report, and others like it, have made MDMA (the scientific name of ecstasy) to be some kind of devil drug that kills all or most of its victims. This is not quite accurate, however. As it so happens, overdose on MDMA is quite rare, and not nearly as harmful as an overdose on drugs such as heroin. In fact, the drug has a considerably high safety ratio, better than that of alcohol, and is nonaddictive. It is the second most popular recreation drug in Canada, after cannabis, and relatively few deaths are reported for the volume of use. If you add to that the fact that pills are often adulterated with dangerous drugs such as methamphetamines, or even rat poison, as in the case of the two teenagers from the reserve, this can logically show the deaths attributed to actual ecstasy to be much lower. The major harm caused by the scaremongering is that it further demonizes the drug, thus reinforcing its illegality, which in turn causes it to continue to contain dangerous adulterants and thus cause death. Clearly, a newspaper's factual inaccuracy which causes death is the worst type.
Journalists also make spelling and grammar errors occasionally. One such example is the use of the word "dilemma". In a Journal article, it is suggested that a woman faces a dilemma in what do do with her dogs when away. This is incorrect, as a dilemma is a problem in which only two equally undesirable choices are possible. Her dog problem has undesirable choices, yes, but there are also other, more desirable choices. It is thus not a dilemma.
Picture taken from news-poland.com.
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