Mètode Launches The Two Cultures Observatory

Mètode launches The Two Cultures Observatory to study the relationship between journalism and science. In 1959, the physicist and writer C.P. Snow coined the concept of «the two cultures» to talk about the miscommunication he saw between the two worlds he belonged to —science and humanities. «I felt I was moving among two groups—comparable in intelligence, identical in race, not grossly different in social origin, earning about the same incomes, who had almost ceased to communicate at all…» explained Snow, and added that this polarisation meant a loss for all of us, both as individuals and as society.

Currently, there is a general reluctance to consider scientific contents as a part of culture. This incomprehension is often transferred to the mass media where journalists—who are traditionally trained in humanities— and scientists do not always understand each other as they should in a society like ours, ruled by technoscience. The Two Cultures Observatory studies the relationship between journalism and science, promoting mutual understanding.

We launch, thus, this section to highlight those news items, interviews, articles and reports that help us to reflect on the not always easy but necessary relations between the mass media and science.

© Mètode 2013.