{"id":120,"date":"2023-11-20T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T11:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/physicsworld.com\/?p=111123"},"modified":"2023-11-20T12:00:50","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T11:00:50","slug":"why-the-institute-of-physics-launched-a-campaign-to-get-the-media-to-bin-the-boffin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hadamard.com\/c\/why-the-institute-of-physics-launched-a-campaign-to-get-the-media-to-bin-the-boffin\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Institute of Physics launched a campaign to get the media to ‘Bin the boffin’"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is not often that a campaign launched by a scientific learned society finds itself featured on the front page of the Daily Star.<\/em> But that is what happened, not once, but twice over the past year when the paper responded to a call from the Institute of Physics<\/a> (IOP), which publishes Physics World<\/em>, for the media in the UK and Ireland to\u00a0\u201cBin the boffin\u201d<\/a>. The campaign aims to persuade journalists to stop using the outdated slang term \u201cboffin\u201d as a catch-all to describe any scientist, technician, researcher or expert who happens to be the subject of their coverage.<\/p>\n

n<\/p>\n

As boffin is mostly a term used by the red-top tabloids, we initially directed our call towards them (although it is worth mentioning there are other offenders \u2013 the Economist<\/em> is also rather fond of the term, for example). The impact of the campaign<\/a> was greater than we could have hoped. There was a quick win when the editor of the Daily Mirror<\/em> clarified that the word should not be used<\/a> by its reporters, while the Daily Star<\/em> ran a defence of the word on its front page and continues to use it. Only the Sun<\/em> refused to engage.<\/p>\n

n<\/p>\n

We believe that boffin is a lousy way to talk about scientists. The term has negative impacts \u2013 it is poorly understood, strongly associated with the male gender and is confusing. When we surveyed our members last year, they told us that the term was unhelpful and inaccurate, with younger members stating it actively puts them off science. To be clear, the IOP isn\u2019t seeking to ban the word. If a pub quiz team, say, wants to be called “Brilliant boffins\u201d that\u2019s fine and if scientists don’t mind the word, then we would consider that a matter of personal taste.<\/p>\n

n<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>