Why should the media report on science - and how? Increasingly scientific influence is regarded as risky or even dangerous, for example nuclear power or genetic engineering. Societies have to decide on such issues and therefore people have to be informed about these kinds of science. And where science itself is under scrutiny, media have to provide arguments and room or time for discussion.
In that view the job of science journalism is not only to translate scientific speech into everyday language - as science journalism is often regarded. Science journalism also has to consider the context the man in the street is interested in.
These are two different goals science reporting has to address. And it is necessary to distinguish between the two levels of serving readers interests. Science journalists should orient themselves on journalistic rules, not scientific needs. And scientists should know that journalists are not the translators of scientists. The arising conflicts between scientists and Journalists will be discussed.
