SIRC Media Watch Archive
Comment and Opinion – December 2001

Guidelines on Science and Health Communication – Latest developments. The Royal Society has now joined SIRC and the Royal Institution to produce a single set of guidelines on the reporing of science and health issues in the media. These replace the earlier SIRC / RI guidelines and the Royal Society's notes for journalists and editors. The published document – Guidelines on science and health communication – represents the strong consensus of the science and health communities in the United Kingdom. They have also been formally endorsed by the Press Complaints Commission and fully debated in the House of Lords. Full article.

Evolution, Alienation and Gossip. Gossiping on a mobile phone has become the human equivalent of social grooming among apes and chimpanzees according to a new report by the Social Issues Research Centre. The research, commissioned by BT Cellnet, says the ability to gossip among humans is 'essential for our social, psychological and physical well-being' and that the mobile phone 'has allowed us to return to the communication patterns of earlier times when we lived in small, close-knit communities.' Full report.