Pseudoscience in Periodismo.com
Pseudoscience in Periodismo.com
On a note in favor of astrology translated and published in Periodismo.com.A note was published on the Quartz site, in English, signed by Michael Tabb. The article was translated and published on the website Periodismo.com.
This site, directed by Diego Rottman, is associated with Periodismo.net through which online journalism courses are taught, among them, a course in Scientific Journalism that I did several years ago.
In addition, it should be noted that in Periodismo.com every month examples of "Bad journalistic praxis" are collected. In the August 2018 version of that section, it says: "False news, manipulations, omissions, blunders and all the worst of journalism last month, rescued by tweeters."
This characterization points to Periodismo.com as a sort of "commissar" of quality journalism that points out what is done wrong and even dictates courses on how to do it well.
It is curious -or not so much- that on the cover of the site they usually publish "crazy news" that although they give account of things that actually happen, they can be classified within the rubric "sensationalism".Following the translation, without signature, published in Journalism.com of the note in favor of astrology, I sent a tweet to Rottman making it clear that, in my view, the translation of such a note is an example to consider in the "journalistic bad practice" that they collect. His response was the following: "Hi, the note is a translation of Qartz, the body of the note is not good, but the video explains the idea better, and in no way does the pseudoscientific character of astrology be denied, but for the sake of clarity we will probably end up erasing the post. "
Beyond the lack of accents in Rottman's tweet, the central question is this: there is no problem in addressing any issue, even astrology, as long as things are made clear, instead of falling into mere ambiguity and making a "textual" translation is not an excuse for not doing so. I mean with textual translation to a non-literal translation, but one that is well done, but that does not add anything to the original text.
On the other hand, once published the note, delete it not only could be considered a form of "censorship" later (which I did not ask), but also does not clarify anything.Therefore, I will do what others do not do, either through ignorance or trust.
MYTHS AND TRUTHS ABOUT ASTROLOGY IN ARTICLE QUARTZ
First of all it should be noted that the article in Quartz, translated in Periodismo.com, is accompanied by a video. I will refer to both, the text and the video.
First, the article says that according to a survey more than 40% of Americans say that astrology is "something" or "very" scientific. And then he says "Let's blame the internet, blame atheism, blame our stressful times, the number is increasing, and it's even higher among young people."In this regard: atheism has very little to do with astrology because astrology is based on gods: the name of the planets, Saturn, Jupiter, etc., comes from the Roman tradition. At the same time, astrology does not talk about the physical characteristics of the planets, their atmosphere, their gravity, their magnetism. What influence can a rock have in space then? The "cosmic effluvia" would be nothing other than the "spiritual" manifestation of the gods associated with the planets. Therefore, at least in one sense, it is a disguised form of (pagan) religion. It is not exactly a religion, because for such a thing it would take a ritual.
The article also states that: "Astrology is essentially a set of stories based on millennia of observations." And then it adds: "Astrologers have managed to discover such connections by registering and organizing large amounts of new information, currently, some are incorporating asteroid data, and proceeding by trial and error."
Where are those huge volumes of data collected over millennia? In nowhere. They do not exist. It would be very easy to disprove me by showing such data. Nobody will, they are not anywhere. Astrologers do not collect any data. Maybe someone says that he does it in a particular way and does not publish them, which is unprovable.
If there were, if there was a huge database, statistical studies could be carried out. We will refer to that immediately. But if it is said that there is much data collected over millennia, a serious journalist (not a fourth), should ask and ask where these data are and if they do not find them, doubt their existence, instead of accepting it blindly. Is this taught in journalism courses or is it taught to publish anything without a checkup?
THE INFLUENCE OF THE ENVIRONMENT
The article also says: "In addition, astrology may have come up against valuable insights into how the world around us affects us, Western solar signs tell us that seasons (not constellations) dramatically affect our personality." Chronobiology tells us the same thing: just like our bodies follow the daily rhythms, according to our biological clock, they also seem to follow annual rhythms, affected by our environment. "Let's see this, also addressed in the video. There are some statistical studies, not properly proven, but plausible, that establish a relationship between date of birth and diseases, based on a seasonal question. To put it mildly: those born in winter seem to have a tendency to certain types of diseases different from those usually born in summer. This contradicts astrology, since for astrologers, a person born in the middle of September is Virgo, both in the Northern Hemisphere (where it is autumn) and in the Southern Hemisphere (where it is spring). Therefore, if such studies were true, it would not make sense to think of "people born in September (Virgo)", but "people born in autumn."
On the other hand, these studies say nothing about personality. The influence of the Sun, which is a star and therefore emits light and heat, can not be extrapolated to any other object that does not do such things. The influence of the Sun on terrestrial life is unobjectionable, but in what does the Sun influence the personality? In nothing.
The Moon also has its influence, given its size and distance. At night, animals that hunt (or are hunted) will have a difference when the Moon is in full phase than when it is in a new phase. There is an influence that can not be extrapolated to the planets, as it is obvious: The presence or absence on the horizon of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter or Saturn (the planets visible to the naked eye) does not change in any respect to the vision nocturnal because although they are much larger than the Moon, they are much farther from the Earth, so they are only seen as points of light, that is, the light that they reflect from the Sun towards our planet is very little. Its influence on nocturnal animals is nil. And regarding the personality, its effect is the same: none.
If the planets or moons influenced us by gravity, then two questions could be asked: why is not all the moons of the solar system, except ours, unknown to astrology? Jupiter and Saturn together have more than a hundred natural satellites that astrology does not know.
But also, if a piece of rock affects our personality by gravity (mass and distance), then that should also happen with ... Aconcagua or Everest. Even in these cases, their influence would be greater, because although they have less mass, they are much closer to people. (Gravity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance).ON STATISTICAL STUDIES
Let's say we find that every time a male is born in a hospital, the traffic light that is in the corner of the hospital is lit in the red light. Does that mean that every time the traffic light turns red, a man is born? Can that CORRELATION be used as if it were a causal relationship? A causal relationship implies a cause-effect relationship. Is there a cause-effect relationship in that case or is it just a coincidence?
Let's say that the traffic light has three lights and that the three lights the same amount of time, one minute each, then it would be logical to expect that when a man is born only one third was born just when the red light was red. If you found a value well above 33% it would be striking.
However, if the traffic lights do not turn on for the same amount of time, the probability of being born with each light is not equiprobable. If the red light turns on for 2 minutes, then yellow for 30 seconds and then green for 1 minute, it would be logical to expect that most births occur when there is red light. But in no case there is a causal relationship, that is, the sexual gender of newborns is not given by the light of the traffic light, as we know with certainty because there are ultrasounds.Similarly, if we had a long collection of data linking astronomical phenomena with human events, we should have certain statistical cares when making high-sounding conclusions.
Suppose, for example, that we had a database with records like this:Date: 09/20/2015; Objects in the sky: Mars; Facts: War in the Gulf.
Suppose we have many similar records. We would be tempted to think that there is a correlation between Mars in the sky and wars. But, at that time, there was only Mars in the sky?
As we know from modern astronomers, there are dozens of different types of objects in the sky: planets, moons, asteroids, comets, nebulae, galaxies, stars of different types (variables, binaries, dwarfs, giants, etc.), supernova remnants , etc. Most of these objects (except the above mentioned planets and some stars) can not be observed with the naked eye, they are objects of deep space that were only discovered and can be observed with telescopes. That the old ones did not know, that's why they did not take them into account. But there they are. Therefore, to suppose that there is a relationship between Mars and wars is ... capricious, unscientific.Trying to explain diseases only by the date of birth is as stupid as demonstrated in a simple example:
People with lung cancer were born in different places, at different times, they are not part of a particular "sign". Instead, cancer can be explained by the use of toxic substances such as nicotine. That is, to explain what happens to us we have to know what we do, not what planets there were in heaven at the time of birth.THE AMBIGUITY AS A MARK OF TIME
It has been said that ambiguity is a mark of postmodernity. Actually this happens nowadays, although I doubt that this only happens today. But it is true that it is common to find statements like this: "Astrology is false, but those of Virgo are different from those of Gemini." What is contradictory. Quartz's article, translated without criticism in Periodismo.com, goes in the same direction.THE ASTROLOGY AS PREJUDICE
Astrology is nothing more than a collection of ancestral prejudices. Prejudices are ideas we get from people before we know them well, without much data, only for apparent reasons. It is inevitable to form hasty ideas. However, if we are adults, we already know that appearances deceive, therefore, one thing must counteract the other. If we see a man with long hair, we may think "It's weird, it must be hippie", but not all men who have long hair are hippies. What we do in those cases is a correlation between men with long hair and hippies. But it is not a causal relationship.
Similarly, there are those who think that blacks are inferior or "rare"; that women are inferior to men; that the Jews are like this or so, etc. They are prejudices because they are false ideas, given by a small amount of real data that can not be extrapolated to the whole.
Therefore, a prejudice is an idea that may seem true, based on some data, but it is actually false. Scientifically false.If we are against prejudice, then we should be against astrology. Those born in June are different from each other, the personality of the people is not given by the planets in heaven at the moment of birth: the personality is a consequence of the process of socialization.
Therefore, astrology has nothing to offer, except stereotypes, preconceptions based on old knowledge already overcome and generates prejudices about whether people are of this or that form without knowing them. How can someone be in favor of that?
CONCLUSION
In any case, I could agree that the study of what is and what is not astrology can help the social sciences, particularly to understand how people form false ideas of others, how prejudices are formed and maintained, both in the past and in modernity. At present, among other things, we should consider the influence of the media that supported by the "tyranny of demand" offer audiences what they demand, even if it is false, questionable, distorted. If people consume it, if it "clicks", if it can be "boxed", then it is published. That explains the "crazy news" of many portals. Facebook is now blamed for "fake news", that is, false news, and it is often said that they rely on the fact that the public responds emotionally rather than rationally. But it is clear that this does not start and ends in some social networks.
It does not matter if I like something or not, neither if it is modern or if it is old: to know if something is true, we must rely on evidence.Sources and related links
Periodismo.com: Astrology could really help science
https://www.periodismo.com/2018/09/17/la-astrologia-realmente-podria-ayudar-a-la-ciencia/Journalistic malpractice August 2018
https://www.periodismo.com/2018/09/03/mala-praxis-periodistica-agosto-de-2018/Quartz: Astrology, the beloved pseudoscience, could actually really help science
https://qz.com/1382407/astrology-the-beloved-pseudoscience-could-actually-really-help-science/
SOURCE LINK THE BEST ONLINE UFO WEBSITES https://www.beviral.online
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