We have been profoundly unimpressed with the Science: So What campaign to date. Loth as we are to say this, it does look like something put together by Ben Goldacre’s caricature of number-dodging, science-unaware humanities graduates. There is no publicly-available rationale for who was invited to participate in this campaign (e.g., prominent critic of the poor standard of science and health journalism, Dr Ben Goldacre, was not invited) and the organisers seemed to have annoyed a number of mild-mannered academics when they ignored the advice of the UK community that is actively engaged in promoting the public understanding of science.
How could a publicly-funded body make more of a hash of its reputation? How about some remarkably poor social media management – of which HolfordWatch has a prime example. Continue reading