Nature Marsilius Gastprofessur für Wissenschaftskommunikation Exhausting our Criticial Thinking: Science Journalism Against Misinformation and for Democracy

“The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.” This is how chess champion and activist Garry Kasparov describes one of the challenges of contemporary media. The most detrimental effect of misinformation is not merely the belief in “fake news”, but rather the erosion of trust in reliable news. This challenge to democracy is particularly relevant in the realm of science, in times of pandemics and climate change. However, it is not a new one. Science journalism has grappled with it since the days of the first news pamphlets, where one can already detect a tension between rigor and bias. Fast-forward to modern science journalism and the same tension still persists, in the shape of a complex machinery of agenda-setting. Social networks and Artificial Intelligence bring this tension to a whole new level. Throughout history, reliable science journalism has proven to be the best defense against misinformation - even today, in the midst of a crisis in the media ecosystem. How do we foster high-quality science journalism? How can we uphold journalistic values in a changing media landscape? How do we help audiences in shifting from a diet of junk information to a healthier one?

Michele Catanzaro (Rome, Italy, 1979) is a science journalist, lecturer, and author, based in Barcelona (Spain). He studied physics at the Sapienza University (Rome) and the Technical University of Catalonia (Barcelona) where he earned his PhD with a dissertation on complex network theory.

Since 2001, he has been working as a freelance journalist, writing mainly about science, environment, health, technology, science policy, and academic freedom as well as on justice and forensics. His articles were published in journals and newspapers such as Süddeutsche Zeitung, Der Spiegel, The Guardian, Repubblica.it, and Le Scienze. He held various positions in the field of science communication, such as the director and script writer for RTVE (the Spanish public television) and BarcelonaTV and press officer of the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona. In addition, Michele Catanzaro is the co-author of the book “Networks: A Very Short Introduction” (2012) and of the documentary “Fast Track Injustice: The Óscar Sánchez Case” (2014).

Michele Catanzaro's work has been recognized i.a. by the King of Spain International Journalism Prize, the European Science Writer of the Year 2016 Award, the Holtzbrink award, the Prismas Award, and the Golden Nymph Award 2015.

Michele Catanzaro teaches and mentors students in science communication at undergraduate and masters levels, at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Vic University (UVic) and Valencia International University (VIU).