What archaeological discoveries are considered newsworthy by U.S. media outlets and audiences? A new analysis of "pop-science" reporting reveals topical and regional disparities, including an apparent underrepresentation of Chinese archaeology and preference for findings relevant to white Christian histories. The skewed coverage raises concerns as archaeology influences notions of identity and cultural achievement, and has been misappropriated by racist, nationalist ideologies.
Mass media represents a primary avenue for research to reach diverse publics, but relatively few peer-reviewed scientific papers become popular science news. Here, co-authors Bridget Alex, Jenny Ji, and Rowan Flad compared scientific and popular publishing of archaeology, a field with large public interest that generates understandings about past cultures with real or imagined descendants. News coverage prioritizing certain regions may give the impression that those places are more important to the histories or ancestries of the U.S. public. Additionally, under-reported regions may be perceived as "primitive" or lacking hallmarks of civilization.
Combining their expertise in archaeology, science journalism, and statistical methods, the researchers analyzed peer-reviewed archaeology papers published from 2015–2020 in one specialist and six general science journals, the papers' reporting (or not) by 15 U.S. news sources, and other measures of public attention captured by Altmetric.com. Of the 1,115 archaeology papers identified, around 52% received coverage globally and 32% were reported by at least one of the analyzed U.S. news sources. Predictably, the study's statistical models revealed that research papers were more likely to receive media coverage when published in "top" journals (e.g. Science, Nature), included in a press release service, and focused on Paleolithic Archaeology/human origins. Considering geographic focus, in the overall dataset papers about archaeology in the U.K., Israel/Palestine, and Australia were about 3 times more likely to be reported by the U.S. media outlets, relative to those about China/Taiwan.
Applying the analysis to each news source individually, archaeology studies about Egypt, Spain, Turkey, and the U.S. were also significantly more likely to be reported by some outlets, compared to China/Taiwan. Building on previous research on U.S. pop-archaeology, history curricula, implicit biases, and popular opinion polling, the team suggests these disparities reflect a confluence of anti-Chinese and pro-white/Christian sentiments. This biased coverage of archaeology news may reinforce notions of cultural affiliation that exclude and diminish certain identity groups from what is understood as the relevant pasts of people living in the U.S.
