The general public would have a better understanding of our
newspapers and of the forces by which opinion is moulded if they would read some of the excellent books about journalism which are now being published in America. Mr. G. W. Johnston of the Baltimore Evening Sun says in What is News ? (Knopf, 7s. 6d.) that the popularization of difficult subjects is one of the great functions of the journalist. Intelligent people sometimes look with horror on the attempts of journalists to present science as news : this attitude is due to the fact that genuine populariiation is rare, the difficulty being that no man is capable of clarifying a subject until he understands it himself. There is much truth in this: the battle of ideas in the scientific field would snake a thrilling story if properly presented. Unfortunately it is less trouble to serve the public with a new murder, or even an old one.
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