ABSTRACT Overlooked in analyses of why the public often rejects expert consensus is the role of the news media. News coverage of expert consensus on general matters of policy is likely limited as a result of journalists’ emphasis in news production on novelty and drama at the expense of thematic context. News content is also biased toward balance and conflict, which may weaken the persuasiveness of expert consensus. This study presents an automated and manual analysis of over 280,000 news stories on 10 issues where there are important elements of agreement among scientists or economists. The analyses show that news content typically emphasizes arguments aligned with positions of expert consensus, rather than providing balance, and only occasionally cites contrarian experts. More troubling is that expert messages related to important areas of agreement are infrequent even in relevant news content, and cues signaling the existence of consensus are rarer still.

中文翻译：

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专家（新闻）值得吗？专家共识的平衡、冲突和大众媒体报道

摘要 在分析为什么公众经常拒绝专家共识时，新闻媒体的作用被忽视了。由于记者在新闻制作上强调新颖性和戏剧性，而忽略了主题背景，因此对一般政策问题的专家共识的新闻报道可能会受到限制。新闻内容也偏向于平衡和冲突，这可能会削弱专家共识的说服力。这项研究对超过 280,000 篇关于 10 个问题的新闻报道进行了自动和手动分析，其中科学家或经济学家之间存在重要的共识要素。分析表明，新闻内容通常强调与专家共识立场一致的论点，而不是提供平衡，并且只是偶尔引用逆向专家。