Now this is a pet hate of mine - the media's view of (in this case) maths but it also at some level applies to science.
I was listening to 'You and yours' on Radio 4 today and they had a piece about the sub-prime problem and a study that had (apparently) shown that those who are mathematically challenged were more likely to default on their mortgage.
Now I have no problem with the idea that some people are bad at maths - hey I'm crap at languages - but WHAT REALLY FUCKS ME OFF is the way that most of the media, but in particular the BBC, find it funny if you can't add 2 and 2 and 'really weird' if you can.
At lease ten minutes of the program including teasing trailers was around how difficult it might be to calculate 20% of 2M dollars - do what?
Ok - if you can't do it I am sorry for you but it's not something to be proud of - conversely don't 'dis' people who can do it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This thread of anti-science/maths/physiscs etc runs right through the whole BBC. It's displayed on a daily basis in all areas of their output.
ReplyDeleteIf you let on that you can't abide nodern art, or find opera tedious they fall off their chairs with mouths agape. But newsreaders, presenters and most other BBC staff (including those supposedly tasked to do it!) just giggle at eahch other when they have to discuss anything even remotely "scientific". Recently a News24 presenter who couldnt even read out a number in the trillions! She stumbled over it three times and then gave up...a display of astonishing incompetence. Today Rory Teflon-Jones was totally underwhelming in a report on some IT research from the Uni of Reading....and he's supposed to be their technolgy correspondent. Unacceptable in today's world.
I believe it comes from the BBC only ever recruiting meeja studies and arts graduates and assuming that's all that's required. It's as if the last 100 years of technology revolution had just not happened. Until they're broken up and dismantled nothing will change.