FEB. 19, 1921 sosman: distribution of scientific information 85 



literary rather than scientific skill, — in other words, they must depend 

 upon the middleman rather than the producer for their material. 

 To summarize : The general monthly and weekly periodicals are at 

 present numerically the most effective agency for the distribution of 

 scientific information to the public ; bulk and heterogeneity, however, 

 discount their effectiveness as compared with books. They are a 

 negligible factor in distribution to producers of information. 



Newspapers. — About 2400 daily newspapers were published in the 

 United States in 1920, with a total circulation of about 31 million, 

 or about one for every third person in the United States, daily. There 

 were also published some 13,000 weekly papers. The possibilities 

 for distributing information by this medium are thus tremendously 

 greater than by any other of the methods we have considered. 



In spite of this fact the newspaper has hardly been utilized at all 

 for the distribution of information. Its contents are principally 

 (1) advertising, (2) the news of the day, partly systematized, (3) 

 repetitions and reiterations of that news in various forms, (4) opinions 

 and predictions, (5) advice and propaganda, (6) fiction, (7) fun, and 

 (8) gossip.^" There are good reasons for the existence of all of these 

 departments of the newspaper, and also for the absence of any consid- 

 erable amount of real information. I shall not attempt to analyze 

 these reasons, beyond remarking that the haste in which the news- 

 paper is usually read is an important factor. 



One factor which we should consider, though probably a minor 

 one, has been the information-producer's distaste for newspaper 

 publicity. The teacher and the investigator, as a class, have in- 

 herited certain disabilities from past centuries, chief among which 

 is that of being looked upon as akin to the medicine-man, monk, 

 astrologer, or wizard. This tradition demands of the newspaper 

 that the products of scientific investigation shall be "played up" 

 in a corresponding form and most scientists have studiously avoided 

 that insult to their self-respect — not a wanton insult, be it under- 

 stood, but one demanded by the circumstances, just as vituperation 

 is called for in a political campaign. 



Of recent years, the knowledge-producing profession has increased 

 greatly in numbers, and has accordingly come more intimately into 

 touch with the world's e very-day work. There is resulting a change 



'^ I would include under this term much material which would come under the dic- 

 tionary's definition of "news," but which has not the remotest relation to the interests 

 of a given reader. 



