Hayley discovers Skeptic magazine

Journalism isn't a totally new idea for me. It was suggested to me by career advisors in high school, since I'm naturally curious and love writing. But I was put off by a single notion: that if I wrote for a newspaper or magazine, I would be writing for an agenda. I thought I would rather be an author, where I could write what I liked, but came to the reasonable conclusion it would be difficult to make a career out of that right away, so I'd better do something sensible in the mean time. A short lesson later on in school reinforced the idea of biased media, where we were given several national newspapers to look over and decide where their allegiance lay. I looked at every newspaper from then on as trying to sway me, and generally stayed away from them.

This unfortunately means I've so far had a poor exposure to the types and styles of printed science media (while I'd certainly love to have my own volcano science show, for now I'm limiting my dreams to my comfort zone of writing). Walking around a bookstore today however, a magazine caught my eye, with it's cover story 'Climate Skeptics', a pet subject of mine. I picked it up and searched for the article inside. I read the first few sentences: there's talk about defining the difference between climate skeptics and deniers, a very important division I hadn't known was necessary before I befriended a true climate skeptic. Alright, I was interested, what else did the magazine have to offer? I scanned a few other headlines: 'The stigma of being atheist' 'Do cell phones cause cancer?' 'Daniel Loxton's top 10 busted myths'.

OK, so now I was checking the price and my small change collection, but before I took the final plunge, what was I buying into here? I checked the inside of the front cover, which showed a slightly cheesy advert for a conference in Las Vegas. I raised an eyebrow. Then I read the keynote speaker: Richard Dawkins! More speakers: Simon Singh, Penn & Teller, that guy from Mythbusters... and the magazine is SOLD!

I read the first two articles - on how 'boosting your immune system' is an empty phrase and a piece about a therapeutic pseudoscience - over a bad Chinese dinner, and barely noticed the earthquake in my intestines. But while this magazine appeals to me for it's no-nonsense approach to bad science information, I know there is a lot of it out there, and I'm going to have to read the bad to know what's good.

It seems there's a whole world of science media out there, and the research is just beginning!