Do you find it as annoying as me to read pop-sci articles in the news? I can hardly take them seriously anymore.
I suspect that I do. I also wonder how this will affect generations of people growing up in this kind of environment, where science is merely another avenue to entertainment. If everything reported as news must be considered suspicious, then I think that some may emerge from the experience better able to discern what constitutes quality news, but I also think that the vast majority might simply stop caring about what is true or not. The picture that's emerging for me, in regard to media and mass communications, is that this is an era with little credibility as the only truth that seems to drive anything is whether or not something is immediately entertaining. I have often wondered about this as it relates to reality. If the only truth is entertainment, then what would it take to alter reality? One thing that comes to mind, is a rumor. I believe that if a rumor is entertaining enough, it will persist as truth and perhaps even science, even if the fact that it is a rumor is revealed.