Scientists with East Asian and African names get short shrift in news coverage

Jenny On The Moon/istock.com adapted by C. Smith/ Science Media attention can boost a scientist’s career, bringing them prestige and making it easier to attract collaborators and students. But there are disparities in who gets named in news stories about scientific research, according to a new study: Scientists with East Asian and African names are less likely to be mentioned or quoted in stories that reference their work. For individual scientists, having their name mentioned “is very meaningful,” says study lead author Hao Peng, a postdoc at Northwestern University who himself has been left out of high-profile news coverage that featured his work. “It matters for career progression, for academic recognition, and also in some cases for career mobility for foreign scientists.” The decisions journalists make about who to mention in a story also have broader implications for how the public views scientists, says Maite Taboada, a distinguished professor at Simon Fraser University whose lab developed the Gender Tracker, a website that monitors the proportion of women quoted in Canadian news stories. “It is important for the individual researcher, for sure. But it is mostly, from a public perspective, about who is seen as an important researcher, which names and universities are mentioned as doing good science, [and] who is seen as a role model for young people considering careers in science.” That’s why it’s so import...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research