Questionnaires, analysis and contradictions

2010/07/02 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Giza zientziak

To understand the title, it should be noted that the report contains the answers of a questionnaire made to 26,671 people from 32 European countries. In addition, the Eurobarometer also interprets the data and compares it to the results of a similar survey conducted in 2005. Hence the title.

The main conclusions of the report follow the same path: almost 80% of the population responds that it is interested in scientific discoveries and technological advances, while sport only interests 65%. And they think they are well informed: 50% say they are fairly well informed and 11% very well. In addition, interested and informed people have a more positive view of science and technology than others. They recognize that they are not very clear about the work of scientists.

In view of the data, it is surprising the scarce space that televisions give informatives about science and technology. Aren't specialists in offering what people care about? That we thought many. But according to the recent research by the Elhuyar Foundation, and when the data of the Eurobarometer are true, they are wrong

In particular, Elhuyar has analyzed the dissemination of scientific and technological issues in the news. In particular, he has followed up on news reports from ETB1, ETB2, TVE and La2 television networks, and the main conclusion is that the issues in these areas do not have special relevance or priority, but focus on other topics. They therefore play against the interests of the people

Press vs. blogs and Twitter

And television is no exception: in previous years the Elhuyar Foundation has analyzed the place of science and technology in newspapers published in the Basque Country and has reached a similar conclusion. All these studies are available on the website of the Elhuyar Scientific Culture Laboratory.

On the contrary, and once again with the results of the Eurobarometer, American blogs and Twitter would be closer to people's interests. This can be deduced from the results of the research conducted by a Pew Research Center for Excellence in Journalism.

The organization has measured the frequency with which scientific and technological topics appear in blogs (Technorati and IceRocket (not available), Twitter and written press, with spectacular differences. Thus, Twitter is the starting point of technology, while on blogs there are other topics, but blogs publish 6 times more news about science and technology than the written press.

Therefore, it is possible that each type of media is specialized in a certain type of public and that all those interested in science and technology can satisfy their curiosity in blogs and Twitter. If so, the Eurobarometer answers can be true. If not, the only explanation for the contradiction between the questionnaire and audience and consumption data is that people have not answered the truth. It seems so good to say that we are scientific and technological...

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