Dear BBC
I was disappointed when I read this article as I
could immediately see that the research was likely not to be of good quality.
But I was more concerned that you had managed to construct a sensationalist
title to go along with it. A cross-sectional study could never establish the
kind of causative relationship that your title infers.
I paid $24.99 to download the full report and my suspicions of poor
standards in research were supported. Did the author of this article actually
read the report or simply base their story on a press release from Cranfield
University?
Since this report is not freely available to the public, I think that the
BBC, a publicly funded body, has an even greater onus to ensue high
quality reporting of such 'research'.
Here is my blog
response.
Yours faithfully,
Anne Marie Cunningham.......................................................
So how do we go about starting a campaign for decent science journalism on the BBC?
Thursday, 17 September 2009
Email to BBC News Education Re: Tech Addiction "Harms Learning"
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Honestly? Try to get @bengoldacre on it.
ReplyDeleteYou might also try to cheekily claim the $25 back from the BBC, since their erroneous reporting caused you to incur this cost.
You may not get the money.
It's a shame that a pedantic blogger has to part with $25 to make clear that the BBC's story was flaky to say the least. I suspect that the lazy journo in question did exactly as you said and relied on the PR that promoted the article. Not good enough BBC. Must try harder!
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