Alan Boyle, science editor for MSNBC.com, satirizes the online science journalists tabloid angles on their story in efforts to attract readers in the annual Alfred and Julia Hill Lecture entitled "Britney Spears vs. Chimps with Spears: Talking about Science in a Tabloid Culture."

Tuesday, March 25, at 8 p.m. in the University Center's Shiloh room, Boyle finds himself back at UT lecturing about online journalism after having his online career start in 1993 courtesy of UT's Friends and Partners program.  Boyle is the first Web journalist to lecture as part of the Julia Hill Lecture, and like the journalists he talked about, Boyle used a tabloid tactic to hook the audience into the lecture.

Boyle flashed the headline story of chimps fashioning spears to fight Bush babies to launch into his lecture.  "This is the first time that scientists saw one primate species fashioning the tools of warfare to snuff out another primate species; that is if you don't count humans," Boyle said. "Later in the day, there was another news flash from the frontiers of primatology.  From the wilds of Malibu, came word that Britney Spears was back in rehab." 

Boyle contrasted how in an early time period the story about chimps would have made headline news in prestigious outlets, such as New York Times. However, today the Spears article receives more coverage. 

"If we want to write about those chimps and tell the world about it, we have to fashion our own weapons to catch the public's attention just like the tabloids do," Boyle said. 

Boyle expounded upon various tabloid angles that journalists writing about science could take on their articles to appeal to more people.  Boyle stressed the importance to capitalize on the tabloid culture by using angles of sex appeal and playing off personalities.  He listed various headline examples such as: "Was Moses high on Mount Sinai?" and "Cloned cats that glow."

Boyle worries that although these catchy headlines and unique spin on the article will pull in more readers, that the readers will miss the main point of the article.  For example, with the article on cloned cats, its significance lied in the ability of scientists to pass on genetic information onto clones, which has implications for new disease treatments.  "A lot of our users missed the reason why those kitties glowed in the dark," said Boyle.

Statistics from the National Science Foundation show that on average, people only have a "so-so" knowledge of science.  In fact, most users receive their science news while searching for other news.  "We have a visibility problem," Boyle said.  The Internet offers more flexibility with its no limits on space, giving journalists an opportunity to put more science news up for readers and slowly correcting the problem.   

"I thought Boyle's presentation of the way our society needs our news to be sensationalized was insightful," Melanie Williams, sophomore majoring in English and Geology, said.

Jeff Sherman, another audience member, thought about this same issue throughout the lecture.  "All the media is doing is responding to the audience," Sherman said.  However, Sherman is stumped to any other methods for journalists to use to attract more readers.