Why are pseudo-popular science frequently searched？ Expert： The platform should improve its regulatory responsibility.
The picture shows children experiencing popular science projects in Ningxia Science and Technology Museum. Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Peng photo
◎ Our reporter Shi Shi
"Massage acupoints can reverse myopia", "Turn the eyeball and focus alternately with far and near distance, and reduce the degree" and "The training method of pilot’s vision recovery is open" … … Not long ago, a series of short videos of "myopia dropped from 800 degrees to 100 degrees" were posted on the internet, and some social media accounts demonstrated various methods of "restoring vision" under the guise of medical science. Subsequent investigations by authoritative organizations show that the content of online transmission seems to be well-organized, but in fact it is purely pseudo-popular science.
The popular science content spread all over the Internet is a powerful embodiment of universal technology. However, some "parallel imports" and "rumors" are full of them, making some works under the banner of popular science become "traffic passwords" to win attention. Why does pseudo-popular science always have living space? How to correct the "deviation" of pseudo-popular science? The reporter interviewed relevant experts.
The quality of online popular science is uneven.
In recent years, we often see a large number of articles or videos that have been forwarded in the WeChat circle of friends, claiming "scientific research shows" and "expert disclosure". The publishing accounts of these contents are aimed at earning traffic, blindly chasing hot topics, and accompanied by novelty-seeking copywriting, which is contrary to the professionalism and authority of popular science.
Which fields are more likely to produce pseudo-popular science? Yuan Rubing, an associate researcher at Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, analyzed that on the one hand, some cutting-edge scientific problems with high cognitive threshold are often in the process of development and have not yet reached a conclusion. On the other hand, medical and health care, food and health care and other fields are closely related to our lives, and popular science in these fields is more in line with public demand and easy to generate higher attention. Therefore, it is easy to breed pseudo-popular science in these scientific fields.
"With the development of the media, everyone can publish and receive information through various platforms, which greatly facilitates the dissemination of information and knowledge. However, because there is no threshold, the quality of online science popularization is uneven. " Wang Mingyu, a member of the Youth Learning Group of the Medical Science Creation Committee of the Chinese Association of Popular Science Writers, believes that the influx of a large amount of popular science information into the Internet may cause the public to be unable to distinguish between the true and false, the good and the bad, resulting in information overload, and even "bad money drives out good money".
In Wang Mingyu’s view, from the creator’s point of view, there are two possible reasons for the emergence of pseudo-popular science. On the one hand, the author’s own professional knowledge and scientific literacy are insufficient, so he can’t correctly understand and evaluate scientific information, and is easily misled by pseudoscience or false information and spread it to others. On the other hand, some people need more attention and clicks in order to earn traffic profits, so they choose to create sensational or wrong popular science content, regardless of its authenticity and accuracy.
"In some cases, social pressure and demand may also promote the generation and spread of pseudo-popular science." Yang Zhenqing, an associate professor at the School of Science of China Shiyou University and the head of the National Science Education Base of Oil Light, said that some people, after feeling the attention of society to a specific topic, hope to gain more social recognition and praise by publishing related science content. This may lead them to deliberately exaggerate the facts or spread inaccurate information to meet the needs of society.
Platform supervision still needs to be improved
In the decentralized self-media environment, everyone has a "megaphone", which may make real information give way to "flow". However, some experts believe that pseudo-popular science is rampant and the platform also needs to bear part of the responsibility.
Yang Zhenqing told reporters that most mainstream social platforms and content publishing platforms have a series of rules and policies to limit the spread of pseudo-popular science content. "On the one hand, the platform prohibits the publication of false information, deceptive content and content that violates scientific facts. On the other hand, search engines will screen the authenticity of search results to a certain extent. Platforms usually use algorithms to evaluate the authority, credibility and relevance of content to determine the ranking of search results. "
But this is not enough. The reporter once searched on the short video communication platform of "Myopia dropped from 800 degrees to 100 degrees" and found that the popular science posts of professional doctors ranked lower, and the rumor topic traffic of authoritative organizations did not catch up with the rumor topic traffic of the day. Although many netizens refute a "rumor blogger" and "nonsense", there is still no platform intervention after the official rumor.
"When searching for scientific knowledge, the ranking of search results is usually affected by many factors, including content quality, relevance, user behavior, business behavior and so on. Communication platforms generally use technical means, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, to assist in judging the authenticity and quality of search results, but this does not completely guarantee the reliability of the results. " Wang Mingyu said.
Let pseudo-popular science stop at authoritative voice
It is necessary for the whole society to make joint efforts to build a big popular science pattern to prevent fake popular science from occupying the communication space of real popular science and make real popular science reach the audience better.
Sun Xiaoli, deputy research librarian of Beijing Science Center, said: "For the pseudo-popular science content that is intentionally or unintentionally spread, the platform should have corresponding supervision and handling methods, and do its best to be responsible and conscientious. On the one hand, relevant departments should strengthen the supervision of the platform and standardize the management of the platform’s handling of pseudo-popular science; On the other hand, it is necessary to weave a secret law network, increase publicity on science popularization, and strengthen the rule of law. " Sun Xiaoli said.
The construction of rule of law is the fundamental guarantee to realize the goal of popular science. At the same time, knowledge producers become knowledge disseminators and researchers become popular science bloggers, which also helps to make obscure scientific knowledge clear and smooth, so that scientific knowledge can better benefit the public.
How to achieve this goal and better let researchers participate in popular science work? Sun Xiaoli suggested that for scientific researchers, popular science work can be carried out by means of interest guidance and practical guidance based on the needs of the audience. At the same time, we must adhere to the scientific and authoritative nature of popular science and defeat the false "flow" with high-quality popular science content.
Sun Xiaoli also talked about popular science work for "vulnerable groups" and key areas. It is necessary to strengthen the production and dissemination of popular science content in areas related to people’s health and life safety. For example, many "popular science websites" that are screened are actually advertisements. These advertisements package products with scientific research results that seem to be "tall" and sell certain drugs or medical devices. Some pseudo-popular science videos match the "heavyweight experts" in white coats with seemingly authoritative data, which makes many "silver-haired people" believe it.
Some people are already on their way to defeat pseudo-popular science with real popular science. Another identity of Wang Mingyu is a neurosurgeon in the First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University. Even if the work is heavy, he will take time to popularize medical knowledge for the public. In his popular science articles, we can learn that "amoxicillin is not an anti-inflammatory drug, and it is useless to take it for headaches and colds", and that "diabetic foot does not necessarily require amputation" and "‘ The first pain in the world ’ Trigeminal neuralgia can be cured by finding the right method. " These popular science contents have given many patients confidence in fighting the disease.
Wang Mingyu summed up some "tips" to make popular science spread better. "Be scientific and reasonable ‘ Rubbing heat ’ , popular science for the pain points of the audience. At the same time, it makes popular science language closer to the network and enhances the attraction and appeal of popular science content. "
Nowadays, more and more "Wang Mingyu people" are insisting on "fighting wits and wits" with pseudo-popular science, so that pseudo-popular science can stop at the wise, and even stop at the authoritative voice.