READ THE SCIENCE, NOT THE HEADLINE: Don’t let the skim reaper kill your curiosity for truth

Dalem Roswell Sipin and Jerwen Kiev Del Cano

Skimming headlines, the skim reaper leaves science bleeding in every scroll and in every click we make—with our ignorance as his power. 

With the benefit of advancing technology, these falsehoods continue to evolve to obscure the science, its methods, and findings, deterring one’s choice to be critical in probing what is real.

In December 2021, a Social Weather Stations survey found that 69% of adult Filipinos viewed fake news in the media as a serious issue. Following this, a study revealed 51% of Filipinos admitted their struggle to recognize misinformation on television, radio, or social media platforms.

When faulty information is consistently exposed from various social media sites, it baffles people to be superficial, exploring only what’s on the surface, which eventually leads to succumbing to misconceptions when details have been shared.

Hence, the urgency for being scientifically media literate and critically conscientious is no longer just an option but a necessity in an age where disinformation and blind conformity are overwhelming.

Science sets the truth free

A recent 2023 meta-analytic study suggests that being aware of scientific concepts and exposure to newer, user-generated media allows people to be convinced of climate change. 

Occasionally, while selective writing on what is seen from headlines can lead to misinterpretation or sensationalization, the existence of academic papers and knowing how to analyze them runs deep for meticulous data gathering. 

It is highly critical to understand academic journals as a form of journalism. Research is substantial as it delivers actual, evidence-based findings that are grounded through rigorous methods of peer review, ensuring credibility in sparking sound reasoning and informed views in the public, away from being swayed by biased reporting.

However, a key question remains: who can reliably represent science to the public?

Today, the press media and news outlets play a crucial role in making science accessible by breaking down complex research and cases into simple language from magazines, TV shows, films, books, exhibits, NGO reports, legislative hearings, and traditional news media. 

A study in 2018 highlights how science journalists actively streamline and creatively reshape findings using context, analogies, and metaphors. This technique helps address misinformation and pseudoscience, accentuating relevance to the lives of the people. 

From clout to doubt

The electrostatic cloud of social media and press publications is charged with polarizing headlines and inflated data just to pour it onto the masses—a form of clout chasing.

In 2020, some conspiracy theorists claimed that 5G cell towers, which provide the world with internet, allegedly spread COVID-19 due to the electromagnetic frequencies emitted from these towers.

“This conspiracy theory is more often believed by those who do not use the internet (47%), which indicates a significant impact of the digital divide on citizens’ attitudes,” said the United Nations Children’s Fund. 

According to Philipp Hübl and Sander Liden, clout chasers use scientific jargon to frame their argument into that of a scientist or apply dysphemistic words to invoke fear. 

In the Philippines alone, almost 90% of the population has encountered disinformation, compared to 73% as the global average, according to the 2025 Reuters Institute Digital News Report.

As science communication in the country is still developing, this tactic of weaponizing scientific information has led to the propagation of disinformation and further sharing of fake news. 

For the average Filipino audience—many of whom rely on social media as their primary source of information—this manipulation results in confusion and scientific apathy, enabling them to believe fear-driven narratives instead of evidence-based information. 

Despite these conspiracy theories and clout-chasing notions that flood social media, this tsunami would have been prevented if it were not for mankind’s ignorance.

Lost in translation 

Just like how cells translate ribonucleic acid (RNA) into proteins—where mistranslation can lead to biological problems—scientific publications, when misread or skimmed by average readers, can create communicative problems due to confusion.

The complexity of academic vocabulary, technical writing, data-heavy graphs, and writing structures builds a wall between experts and readers.

Debora Bosley said, “Academic prose is often so riddled with professional jargon and needlessly complex syntax that even someone with a Ph.D. can’t understand a fellow Ph.D.’s work unless he or she comes from the very same discipline.” 

With this communicative wall, many Filipinos are dumbfounded with basic reading comprehension, most especially if scientific.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian disclosed the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data, which highlighted that over 29 million Filipinos are functionally illiterate, most of whom are junior high school graduates. 

Given this lack of basic reading comprehension, science literacy in the country is far from being achieved. 

As scientific and academic writings are skimmed, misunderstood, manipulated, or ignored altogether, the skim reaper rises— not as a foe, but as a reflection of us, a generation choking in information yet killing for comprehension. 

When flawed science creeps in

Fact distortion impacts beliefs, and when it involves science, it can seriously affect people’s notions, especially when it aligns with their beliefs, leading them to make different personal or public decisions. 

Noted from a chapter of the 2025 book of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, about the impacts of science misinformation: social identity, early experiences, and distrust in science make people more likely to accept false information.

Once in 2017, the case of the Dengvaxia vaccine brought widespread fear and sensationalized media coverage that had led to deep public distrust in vaccines. 

In a study showing its implications on the perception of Filipinos, 60% of Filipinos were unwilling to get COVID-19 shots, and measles vaccination rates had dropped from 88% in 2014 to 55% in 2018, contributing to a deadly outbreak.

Moreover, COVID-19 myths, fear of radiation, natural product trends, and climate change denial are among other examples illustrating how falsified science can lead to dangerous public behavior and delayed action.

Despite the skim reaper’s vast presence in the current generation, the imperative to read carefully, understand the contents, and question what we see remains as the true essence of science.