06: From scientific journal to breaking news: science and the media

From beaming to cloning, from evolution to climatic apocalypse, scientific topics have been booming in the last few years. Especially in German-speaking countries, science journalism has made a giant step forward, one feels tempted to say: a quantum leap. Bored by the Middle East and by European Community policy, chief-editors have discovered that science can be crispy and hip. The hipness is magnified by the fact that scientists themselves are changing their image: from grey technocrats to visionaries in a world that has lost its political and social visions.
Has science itself changed due to its growing public appeal? Has it adapted to the needs of media? Some critics even suspect that their editors choose the articles they publish well considering which subjects sound interesting to a broader public and which do not. The fear is not unjustified: Will fields of research that are less  sexy be undervalued by society and – which counts more in this material world – by political or private financiers? Who shall judge what helps the public understanding of science and what promotes confusion and hype instead? And who will support the honest science journalists who have lost their income because their stories seem too serious to sell?