The use of Internet in newsgathering among European science journalists

71

Portugal and Greece show the biggest differences between the numbers of male
and female science journalists when compared to the total of journalists surveyed.
From Portugal, 9 female science journalists and 1 male responded to this
questionnaire; from Greece, 3 females and 1 male did the survey.

Age
The mean age of the science journalists who responded to this questionnaire is
42.7 years old (Median=42.5; Standard deviation=10.0). Males (N=61) are older
(mean=44 years old) than females (N=35; mean=40 years old), although the
results are not statistically significant ²⁴. The youngest is a Portuguese female
journalist (aged 26) and the oldest is a French male journalist (aged 64). Countries
with a GNI per capita lower than 22,000 USD present the lowest mean age (36.1
years old) when compared with countries with a GNI per capita between 22,000
and 28,000 USD (mean=46.4 years old) and with countries with a GNI per capita
higher than 28,0000 USD (mean=41.5 years old), a statistically significant result

25

. When divided into age classes, the whole sample seems very balanced (Figure
3).

24

t (94) = 1.1805, p > 0.05

25

F (2, 93) = 9.128, p < 0,001

72

N^umber
o^f
c^ases

28
26
24
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
25-34 years 45-54 years
35-44 years 55-64 years

Age

Figure 3 - Age of respondents

Type of media
Most respondents (N=66; 68.8 percent) to this survey work for daily newspapers
and only a small percentage for weekly magazines or news agencies. This is an
expected result of this survey, as it had been decided that we would only question
science journalists working on staff for general print media and news agencies,
and most of the general print media are daily newspapers. Table 7 shows the
number of respondents according to the type of media they work for.

Number of cases Percent
Daily newspapers 66 68.8

Weekly/monthly 20 20.8
News agencies 10 10.4
Total 96 100.0

Table 7 - Number of respondents according to the type of media they work for

73

Size of the science section

In our survey, we’ve also tried to understand the allocation of resources to the
science section respondents belong to, so we could draw some conclusions on the
kind of media we were dealing with. All 97 respondents answered the question
“How many people write about science in your organization?”, and the results
were revealing of the organizations we had decided to survey. Table 8 shows the
answers to the question.

Frequency Percent
One person 15 15.5
Two people 19 19.6
Three people 29 29.9
Four people or more 34 35.1
Total 97 100.0

Table 8 - Number of people writing about science in each of the surveyed media

These results show that the journalists included in this survey belong to what may
be called the elite of European science journalists, as we had anticipated when
preparing the survey. Only well-resourced general newspapers or magazines can
allocate so many people to cover science on daily/weekly basis.

Journalistic experience of respondents
Besides working for very important organizations, the surveyed journalists also
have a very strong journalistic experience. The respondents’ mean number of
years working as a journalist is 17.3. Males are more experienced (mean=18.8
years) than females (mean=14.7 years), a statistically significant result
²⁶. In
countries with a GNI per capita lower than 22,000 USD (Spain, Greece and
Portugal) the mean number of years as a journalist is 12.7. In all the other

26

t (94) = 1.951, p = 0,05

74

countries of the EU (GNI per capita higher than 22,000 USD), the mean number
of years as a journalist is 18.5, also statistically significant²⁷.
To have an idea of the total results of this survey, in what concerns the journalistic
experience of respondents, we’ve decided to divide the obtained answers in three
different categories: journalistic experience of five years or less (corresponds to
less experienced journalists – “beginners”), journalistic experience between 6 and
19 years (we can call them “experienced journalists”) and, finally, experience of
20 years or more (“veteran journalists”). Figure 4 shows the results of this
division.

50

40

30

20

N^umber
o^f
c^ases

10

0
0-5 years 6-19 years 20 or more years

Journalistic experience

Figure 4 - Respondents’ years of experience as journalist

Experience of respondents as science journalists
We also asked the respondents to tell us how many years they had been working
as science journalists, in order to understand their experience in this particular
field. The mean number of years the respondents have been working as science
journalists is 11.9 (median=10.0; STD=8.2). Females are less experienced in this

27

F (2, 93) = 4.893, p = 0,01

75

field than men, showing a mean of 9.7 years of experience as science journalists,
against 13.1 years of experience for males²⁸. Again, there is a difference between
journalists from countries with a GNI per capita lower than 22,000 USD (9.9
years of experience as science journalists) or higher than 22,000 USD (12.4 years
of experience)²⁹.
The answers were also separated in three different categories: journalistic
experience as science journalist of five years or less, journalistic experience
between 6 and 19 years and, finally, experience of 20 years or more. Figure 5
shows the results of this division.

60

50

40

30

N^umber
o^f
c^{ases 20}

10

0
0-5 years 6-19 years 20 or more years

Years as science journalist

Figure 5 - Respondents’ years of experience as science journalists

Level and area of education
The majority of the respondents to this survey (42.7 percent) has a first university
degree, as we can notice in figure 6. A Master’s is held by 22.9 percent and a PhD
by 13.5 percent of the respondents.

28

t (94) = 2.005, p = 0.048

29

F (2, 93) = 2.518, p = 0.086

76

50

40

30

N^umber
o^f
c^ases

20

10

0
F_inished
H_igh
S_chool

A
M_aster's
d_egree

A
u_niversity
d_egree

S_ome
u_niversity

A
P_hD

Level of education

Figure 6 - Level of education of European science journalists

There are no meaningful differences between the levels of education of men and
women. As expected, higher levels of education are more common in more
developed countries. In this sample, from the 13 respondents with a PhD, 12 come
from countries with a GNP per capita higher than 22,000 USD.
In what concerns the area of education of European science journalists, Table 9
shows a draw between Science/Engineering/Medicine (35.4 percent) and
Comunication/Journalism (37.5), with almost all the others in the area of the
Social Sciences [there are three cases of Literature, one of Musicology and one of
Theology].

Number of cases Percent
Science/Engineering/Medicine 34 35,4
Journalism/Communication 36 37,5
Other 26 27,1
Total 96 100,0

Table 9 - Area of education of European science journalists

77

Countries with a lower GNI per capita have fewer science journalists educated in
science, as we can confirm in table 10.

GNI per capita Total
<22,000 USD 22,000 - 28,000 USD >28,000 USD

Sci/Eng//Medicine 4 (20) 18 (38.3) 12 (41.3) 34
Journalism/Comm. 11 (55) 16 (34) 9 (31) 36
Other 5 (25) 13 (27.7) 8 (27.6) 26
Total 20 47 29 ₉₆

(percentage in brackets)

Table 10 - Area of education of science journalists according to GNI per capita

Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) allows researchers to better understand
the pattern of relationships of several categorical dependent variables. Figure 7,
which summarizes all the variables used in the characterisation of respondents of
this survey, suggests three main journalistic profiles.
The first of those profiles reflects a privileged association between being younger
and less experienced, being a female and having a master’s degree. This profile is
more common in some countries of southern Europe, as Portugal and Greece.
The second profile in the matrix shows older (35-44 years) and more experienced
journalists (6-19 years journalist and 6-19 years journalist of science). The
education of this group seems more extreme (either secondary education, some
university or a PhD). Males are very close to this profile, which is clearly
associated with Nordic countries, Belgium, Austria an also Spain.
Older (age > 45) and more experienced journalists form the third profile in this
analysis. They have a university degree and there are no significant differences
between the education or the experience of males and females. UK and Swedish
journalists are part of this group.
Italian and French science journalists are somewhere between the younger and the
older profiles.

79

4.2. Sources used by European science journalists

In this sub-chapter, we will analyse the thoughts and relations of European
science journalists in what concerns their sources. As we have seen in the
literature review, the question of the sources of science journalists has been
discussed by several scholars who have identified a special dependence of these
professionals to information coming from science journals (for example, Hansen
1994).
As this is the first survey to include science journalists from many different
countries of the European Union, we thought we should probe this assertion. At
the same time, it seemed wise to try to understand the kind of relations European
science journalists establish with their sources, in order to confirm (or deny) the
dependences identified in the literature.

Main sources of science journalists
We asked European science journalists who their main sources were. In the
questionnaire, respondents were presented with a list of sources and were asked to
check their three main sources for science news. If they checked more than three
of the available options, the website for the survey would ask them to go back and
check only three of the possible answers. Table 11 shows the results for this
question.

80

Number of times Percent
mentioned
Peer-reviewed scientific journals 86 89,6

Personal contacts 59 61,5
University press releases 46 47,9

Scientific meetings 44 45,8
Other media 37 38,5

Government press releases 6 6,3

Industry press releases 5 5,2
Non-governmental organizations 5 5,2
Total 96x3= 288

Table 11 - Main sources of European science journalists

As described in the literature, peer-reviewed scientific journals are the main
sources of European science journalists. It is interesting to notice that science
journalists seem to rely mainly on science coming from scientific institutions and
do not consider government or industry press releases as a main source for their
job.

Relations with sources
In this survey, we’ve also tried to understand how European science journalists
relate with their sources. Question 11 of the survey asked “How would you
describe the majority of your relations with your sources?”, and presented two
possible answers: “Cooperative” or “adversarial”.
As we have seen in chapter 2, literature on this subject says that science
journalists depend too much on their sources. At the same time, scientists have
understood that media exposition can mean more money for research in a world
that is competing for scarcer and scarcer resources. One author (Weingart 1998)
talks about the science-media coupling, the need for science and scientists to
come closer to the media and become more media-oriented.