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      Reporting uncertified science in the news media during the Covid-19 pandemic

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            Abstract

            Preprints have gained prominence in the dissemination of scientific findings. This development has been reinforced by the Covid-19 pandemic, which continues to require the rapid dissemination of new scientific information. However, since preprints usually have not undergone peer review, they lack the rigor of other scientific publications such as journal articles. This presents a challenge for the news media tasked with keeping the public informed about the latest scientific developments in the context of great uncertainty during a global pandemic. This research note investigates the reporting of scientific information from preprints in 80 news articles identified in news articles related to Covid-19 published in four South African online media outlets. Our results show that despite the publication of guidelines for reporting on preprints in the media, there is still a way to go regarding the judicious use of scientific information from preprints by the news media.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Journal
            AfricArXiv Preprints
            ScienceOpen
            6 April 2022
            Affiliations
            [1 ] South African Research Chair in Science Communication, Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST), Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1 Matieland, Stellenbosch 7602, South Africa ( https://ror.org/05bk57929)
            [2 ] Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 62A, 2333 AL Leiden, The Netherlands ( https://ror.org/027bh9e22)
            Author notes
            Author information
            https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1048-0429
            https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2031-4616
            Article
            10.14293/111.000/000025.v1
            3a89c344-6727-4d9b-998d-c4bcf641d618

            This work has been published open access under Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0 , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Conditions, terms of use and publishing policy can be found at www.scienceopen.com .

            History
            : 6 April 2022
            Funding
            Funded by: funder-id , South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa;
            Award ID: 93097
            Categories

            The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
            Communication & Media studies
            preprint,covid-19,uncertified science,media,South Africa,science communication,science journalism

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