"Exploring Science Literacy and the Literacy Communities of the Anti-Vaccination Movement"
Wyn RichardsWyn Andrews-Richards is a rhetoric scholar with specific research interests in literacy studies (particularly science literacy/aliteracy), writing center studies, political rhetoric, and feminist rhetoric. She will begin her masters program in August 2016 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
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Natural News Isn’t ScienceA common thread among the anti-vaccination groups I’ve followed on Facebook and Baby Center is the citation of articles and blogs from Natural News. The "About" section on Natural News states, “Natural News is a science-based natural health advocacy organization led by activist-turned-scientist Mike Adams, the Health Ranger.” Interestingly, there is no biography of Adams listed. The process regarding how he changed from an activist into a scientist is not offered. Although there was no biography listed on naturalnews.com, there was a considerable biography on Adams’s website, healthranger.com. “Adams was born in 1967 in Lawrence, Kansas. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree. In college entrance exams and graduate school entrance exams, Adams scored in the 99.9th percentile across all U.S. students. He aced the English, Mathematics, and Science sections of college entrance exams, scoring 100% on 3 out of 4 sections earning numerous offers of scholarships from various universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (which he chose not to attend).” However, in the education section of his biography, it says he holds a bachelor of science (sic) degree with minors in mathematics and economics: “His early college coursework included microbiology and genetics. Adams has a strong academic background in the sciences." The true nature of his earned degree is unclear. Additionally, it does not state the institution from which Adams graduated. Adams started a software company after college graduation, which he sold in 2003 to focus on being the self-named Health Ranger. It is an important rhetorical move that Adams has left out important details regarding his credentials to call himself a scientist. His special mention of MIT implies he is a man of scientific prominence. With his word choices, and his choices regarding what words to leave out, Adams appears to have science literacy. However, clear scientific credentials are missing from his biography. It cannot be assumed that Adams truly possesses the science literacy required to be able to communicate scientific work in a competent manner. In fact, it calls into question whether Adams has the required science knowledge and literacy to be the editor of a “science-based” news source. An examination of an article on Natural News, “Key CDC scientist who downplayed vaccine-autism connection is now fleeing from justice, “ reveals that the only sources listed are the Huffington Post, a sometimes reliable news source, the Office of Inspector General of the US Department of Health and Human Services, a website called rescupost.com (which was inaccessible to me, as I did not have access to site credentials), and other articles posted on naturalnews.com. The scientist the article is written about is Poul Thorsen, who was contracted to do research for the CDC, not actually a CDC scientist as the headline suggests. Thorsen was indicted on 11 counts of Wire Fraud and Money Laundering. However, the Natural News article focuses on the fact that this scientist did research to eliminate the correlation between the MMR vaccine and autism. The man is a criminal, stealing grant money for his own use. However, this has no impact on the other studies regarding vaccine safety. Science literacy is called into question regarding Natural News’s communication of science information. Natural News, a self-proclaimed science-based news source, distributes incorrect information regarding science. When an Internet source speaks with a scholarly tone, it is no surprise that those with science illiteracy and science aliteracy will take their word as scientific truth. |