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Yes, article titles have evolved to be clicked.

Yet at the time science wonders why it's being questioned, it's authority, subverted, etc.? Isn't it obvious?

Editorial: Perhaps instead of blaming the public, science should look in the mirror, as well as hold those between it and the public accountable for errors, inconsistencies, hyperbole, confusing correlation with cause, etc.?

This conundrum is no different than the moderation conundrum of social media. If you leave things to themselves and allow a social media forum to "evolve," it becomes a dumpster fire.

If you leave a publishing journal to optimize for views and/or clickthrough revenue, it becomes a dumpster fire.

If you don't want dumpster fires, somebody has to establish a set a of values and enforce them, even if they have "costs" in terms of popularity/clicks/attention.

Yes agreed. But my point is, between all the shady data practices within too many studies, and the click-bait "journalism", I find science's faulting of various non-believers (e.g., anti-vax, climate change is a myth, etc.) to be misplaced. That is, you can't do crap science and crap journalism and then blame the public their misunderstanding and/or lack of trust. It doesn't work that way.

Scientists aren't the ones doing crappy journalism

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