Re: dinosaurs and the media

[bivalve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (David Campbell)]

Even for dinosaurs, media coverage isn't necessarily very good.  The
popular versions I saw of the recent Science article only mentioned "maybe
bigger then T. rex" and ignored most of the rest of the paper.  Reporting
of something tends to reflect the publicity (or maybe even just the fact
that a reporter happened along), rather than its scientific merit.  Both
better effort on our part to publicize ourselves and better effort on the
part of the media to look for and check stories would help.
I'm sure Jurassic Park raised the price of amber, but the main direct
effect on me as an invertebrate paleontologist has been as a point of
contact for explaining what I do (even though this involves a good deal of
explaining what's wrong with the movie).