Scientists are apparently not as disenchanted with the media as anecdote suggests, according to a study in Science (321, 204 – 205; 2008) , and featured by Phil Ball in his Muse column in Nature News earlier this month. Phil writes: “science journalists can draw encouragement from this evidence of general goodwill but the study raises more provocative questions than it answers. It undoubtedly matters how scientists perceive the way their work is reported, but in the end the crucial question is surely how well science is communicated, not whether scientists are happy with the results. Making scientists happy is not the aim of science journalism, any more than political reporters should worry whether politicians feel good about what they write.”

For more of this article, and for other Muse columns by Phil Ball, please visit Nature’s News site.