“MAKING DEMOCRACY SAFE”: The development of US science journalism in the 1920s

When science journalism first emerged as a specialist news beat in 1920s America, it did so in the context of concerns about a widening gap between scientists and the public. In 1921, a new wire service, the Science Service, tried to address the problem by employing specialist science writers - both women and men - to produce accessible science news that was sold on to newspapers. During the same period, leading newspapers also began investing in science reporting. Most notably, The New York Times frequently ran exclusives on science-related topics thanks to the personal interests of its managing editor, Carr Van Anda. This chapter considers the distinctive contributions of both Science Service and The New York Times in establishing science journalism as a specialist beat. That this was possible was due to changing attitudes about the social purpose of science following World War I, which led many prominent figures to view science as a driver of social change. The new science journalism was predicated on the shared values this entailed, an ideological commitment that, at its worse, led Science Service to promote eugenic propaganda and that continued to influence science journalism through the following century.