CNN's "Science by press release"

One of my big pedagogy concerns, as a psychologist who teaches psychology majors, is this: Are we explicitly drawing the links between psychological science and ALL of the other sciences, and the fact that many of the lessons they learn in their psychology classes apply to other sciences?

I think this is an issue in statistics. I always emphasize that I do not simply teach statistics for psychologists: I am teaching them statistics, full stop. I think we also have to emphasize to our majors that the psychology research process is, in many ways, just the broad research process use in science. As such, our lessons aren't just teaching them major-specific content, but we are teaching them information that leaves them better prepared to interpret scientific research they encounter.

This includes a potential ugly part of the research process: Bad science reporting via over-hyped research press releases.

As such, I present this great piece from CNN, "Science by press release". It highlights the break-neck speed at which COVID-19 research is being conducted and shared. Much of that science is shared via pre-print and press release.

1. The article defines, compares, and contrasts press releases, pre-prints, and published research:

2. It explains what happens when press releases lead popular press discussions of science:

3. The article tells the stories of press-release driven over-excitement for different COVID-related research projects:

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