The value of media hype for science

Headlines so often run ahead of reality. From gene therapy and room temperature superconductors to artificial intelligence and stem cell research, it can take decades for a ‘breakthrough’ to have a real impact on everyday life. That is, of course, for those rare examples that have any long-term influence at all.

Whether excessive optimism, puffery or propaganda, the tendency to hype science has triggered meditations on the role of the media along with broader concerns about the link between faddish, overheated fields of research and pathological science, fraud and the replication crisis.

The Covid-19 pandemic has seen its fair share of hype, not least a former president’s misplaced faith in the powers of hydroxychloroquine as a ‘game changer.’ But hype itself has value.