Syncing with Science: The Challenge of Knowledge-based Journalism to Report on Science in Pakistan

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the public interest in science, and thus the need to report on scientific facts and information correctly has increased. While the pandemic has posed challenges to working journalists across the globe, problems for Pakistani journalists continue to grow. The country’s journalists struggle not only to report on the pandemic but also to report on other scientific matters ranging from environmental issues to technological developments. This indicates the timely need for journalists’ expert knowledge to report on science. Nevertheless, science journalism research is in its nascent stage in Pakistan, and there is no prior national study that analyzes science reporting in relation to knowledge-based journalism. Therefore, informed by the conceptual model of knowledge-based journalism, this study contributes a qualitative analysis of challenges that hinder the practice of knowledge-based journalism for science reporting within the context of Pakistan.