Last Thursday, I spoke with a reader who told me she’d contacted me several times off and on through the years — but this call marked a first for her.
“As I was thinking about calling you, I realized I don’t think I’ve ever given (The Kansas City Star) compliments before,” she said. “So here goes: I just wanted to tell you how important and gratifying it was that I’ve seen several articles recently about science topics, and some of them were even on the front page. Today and yesterday especially, with the bits about the girls with the White House Science Fair, and the thing about stem-cell therapy for dogs — that was what I want to see in my newspaper. “Science is so under-valued in our society, and I think part of that is because the media doesn’t spend the time educating people about the new developments nearly enough. So kudos to your editors for having their heads on straight.”Another reader emailed her approval of the stem-cell therapy story, writing in part: “Thank you for putting a science article on the front page. I rarely read anything but the headlines anymore because not much is worth reading. I found the stem-cell therapy article interesting and actually opened the paper to page 8 to finish the article.”These readers aren’t alone in their appreciation of science coverage in The Star. Many people tell me they look to the paper first and foremost for education in a broad variety of topics, and they echo my caller’s point about the media’s influence over what society considers important.In objecting to last week’s Preview section cover, which depicted a number of Cirque du Soleil performers aping Michael Jackson’s signature crotch-grabbing move, one caller made that point explicitly: “I know people argue about how that’s the kind of thing people want to see and I know (Jackson) became a world figure on the entertainment scene making that kind of a gesture, but that’s not a good reason you have to print it. “The Star could take a stand and say, ‘We’re going to feature art of a higher caliber more often,’ and I think you’d educate more people about what else is available. You don’t have to show people grabbing their genitals just because we’ve all seen it before.”I think this caller is onto something here. Journalists’ mantra is that their goal should be to reflect the world around them. However, I can recall many instances where readers have demanded that the paper should uphold and model certain standards. Profanity, pornography, petty crime, benign child neglect, chronic but functional drug abuse — these are all very real aspects of everyday life, but I doubt many readers would want a steady diet of these topics.That draws a fine line, of course. What one reader finds educational and instructive will surely strike another as didactic and moralistic. And there’s always the issue that all general-interest publications deal with: the wide variety of subject matter they cover as a matter of course. The readership that picks up a copy of Popular Science is obviously significantly different from The Star’s — though the two overlap. “What about a weekly science section or at least a page, maybe on Sunday?” suggested one caller several weeks ago. “You could even combine it with the weather page, which you already do.”He went on to propose that The Star could even partner with teachers at local schools, perhaps to coordinate the stories with their class plans.Creating a new regular feature isn’t something editors decide to do on a whim, and it involves more logistical planning than many readers might suspect. But a recurring science page is a suggestion I’ve passed along multiple times through the years, and I’m sure I’ll continue to hear it reiterated in the future. Keep others like it coming.Read more Public Editor
Posted on Sun, Feb. 19, 2012 04:00 PM
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Readers request a focus on science
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Derek Donovan will return Feb. 28.
