अमूर्त

Newspaper representation of anti-aging cell and gene researches in Taiwan: problems of popular science writing

Yu-Ming Chen, Chia-Hsuan Lien

 We researched science report samples from two of the biggest Newspaper databank in Taiwan: “Apple daily” and “United Daily News Group (Include United Daily News, Economic Daily News, United Evening News, World Journal)”, collected 59 articles about anti-aging cell and gene researches. Content analysis was employed in this study to analyze those reporting stereotypes and mistakes. To sum up, our study pointed out that there were some problems in newspaper media representation in Taiwan: 1. Lack of Basic Information of the Researches that made readers doubted about value and authenticity of these anonymous research reports; 2. Inexplicit explanation of experiment method and research mechanism that confused readers with improper and unreasonable expectations to scientific discovery processes and complexity of practical application of science; 3. Editing vison and news resources were too limited within mainstream news agencies of developed countries or relatively unauthoritative resource of the Western world.