Misinformation and Scientific Expertise in Talk Shows

During the pandemic, the number of scientists invited to German political television talk shows strongly increased. However, before and afterwards, talk show guests came predominantly from politics and the media; scientists were and are a clear minority. Sami Nenno argues in this article that increased representation of scientists can improve the information quality of talk shows. Based on an empirical study of misinformation in German public television, he finds that scientists often challenged misinformation on the spot. Even if scientists are not the right candidates for all types of misinformation and there are good reasons not to think of science as a public correction machine, their presence had a beneficial effect.