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Online trolls are harassing a scientist who helped take pictures of a black hole

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11–20 of 73 posts

Re: Online trolls are harassing a scientist who helped take pictures of a black hole

#11
Can this not be viewed as a call for the media to more accurately report stories? I think people are just tired of massive media outlets manufacturing the news instead of reporting it. This was obviously a team effort but a single individual got put on a pedestal because it fit with a larger narrative.

People are mad and tired of it. Why don't we step back and look at the bigger picture and listen to what people are complaining about instead of just admonishing them.

Re: Online trolls are harassing a scientist who helped take pictures of a black hole

#12
post #7

Media invents a fact, that she is responsible for everything, and make her the face of the discovery, when it was a team effort. They get tons of clicks for saying something that is clearly preposterous. Some people get upset, some even start trolling about it, and badmouth the poor woman, who's not responsible for what the media said in their quest for clicks. A loss of time for everybody involved. Media reports the…

Care to find any example among the myriad of „meet the man behind...“ stories where the same thing happened?

Re: Online trolls are harassing a scientist who helped take pictures of a black hole

#14
post #5

I knew exactly which one it was in particular before clicking. There's a deep rot in the online culture.

This isn't "online" culture, it is simply culture. There has always been a horrible group of folks in culture: What we find acceptable changes over time.

Re: Online trolls are harassing a scientist who helped take pictures of a black hole

#15

Can this not be viewed as a call for the media to more accurately report stories? I think people are just tired of massive media outlets manufacturing the news instead of reporting it. This was obviously a team effort but a single individual got put on a pedestal because it fit with a larger narrative. People are mad and tired of it. Why don't we step back and look at the bigger picture and listen to what people are…

Riiight, so it is about ethics in journalism.

Re: Online trolls are harassing a scientist who helped take pictures of a black hole

#16
post #10
post #6

Reposting my comment from another story that didn’t get traction (edit: thar was quickly flagged off the front page, as this one is now as well): It should be noted that this community here was among the worst in this regard. This isn’t about measuring the exact contribution she may or may not have made to the project. It’s that there are limitless stories of „meet the man behind “ where that question just never cros…

Giving one person the credit for a team effort is wrong. In this case some people are pretending it's right because it's a female, but two wrongs don't make one right.

And yet these discussions, as Matt brings up, generally only occur when there are women involved.

No one's been giving her sole credit for this project, they've been highlighting her as part of the team. She admits that it was a team effort, her team admits it was a team effort and wants people to stop downplaying her accomplishments. Yet the discussion on sites like HN keeps veering into a narrative in which she is being overly credited or attempting to downplay everything she did.

Re: Online trolls are harassing a scientist who helped take pictures of a black hole

#17

Can this not be viewed as a call for the media to more accurately report stories? I think people are just tired of massive media outlets manufacturing the news instead of reporting it. This was obviously a team effort but a single individual got put on a pedestal because it fit with a larger narrative. People are mad and tired of it. Why don't we step back and look at the bigger picture and listen to what people are…

Ah, yes, „ethics-in-astronomy-journalism“...

Re: Online trolls are harassing a scientist who helped take pictures of a black hole

#18
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Giving one person the credit for a team effort is wrong. In this case some people are pretending it's right because it's a female, but two wrongs don't make one right.

And yet these discussions, as Matt brings up, generally only occur when there are women involved. No one's been giving her sole credit for this project, they've been highlighting her as part of the team. She admits that it was a team effort, her team admits it was a team effort and wants people to stop downplaying her accomplishments. Yet the discussion on sites like HN keeps veering into a narrative in which she is…

She and the team she belongs to have been reasonable. I'm talking about what the media is reporting, since they are exploiting this story just for clicks.

These discussions are the result of the media trying to push a feminist narrative. They chose a female member of the team, and they knew where they were going with it. People can see through it, and are rightly upset.

Harassing her personally is, obviously, not the way to go, though. I'm sure the media doesn't care about her at all, or they are even happy that she's getting harassed, because they now have more stories to run.

Re: Online trolls are harassing a scientist who helped take pictures of a black hole

#19
post #15

Can this not be viewed as a call for the media to more accurately report stories? I think people are just tired of massive media outlets manufacturing the news instead of reporting it. This was obviously a team effort but a single individual got put on a pedestal because it fit with a larger narrative. People are mad and tired of it. Why don't we step back and look at the bigger picture and listen to what people are…

Riiight, so it is about ethics in journalism.

Yes? What else would it be when people are tired of the media acting unethically?

Re: Online trolls are harassing a scientist who helped take pictures of a black hole

#20
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Giving one person the credit for a team effort is wrong. In this case some people are pretending it's right because it's a female, but two wrongs don't make one right.

And yet these discussions, as Matt brings up, generally only occur when there are women involved. No one's been giving her sole credit for this project, they've been highlighting her as part of the team. She admits that it was a team effort, her team admits it was a team effort and wants people to stop downplaying her accomplishments. Yet the discussion on sites like HN keeps veering into a narrative in which she is…

As far as I can tell, despite having been fairly high profile in the past (she gave a TED talk), Bouman is not talking to the media now at all and only made the one Facebook post. The only thing that happened was the publication of the photograph.
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