Thor76's recent posts made me wonder if this is actually a good thing. The reason this requirement exists is so that the JREF is slightly less overwhelmed by random people claiming to have powers, but with absolutely nothing to back up their claims. There are two problems with this. The first is that it might not actually achieve anything. The majority of applicants seem to either not understand the application rules or just don't care about them. The media requirement is just one more rule that they ignore. Where the JREF used to say "Go away and come back with 3 affidavits", they now say "Go away and come back with a newspaper article". Does this actually make any difference to either the number of applicants or the work needed to deal with them?
The problem that thor76's posts actually made me think about is: does the media requirement actually encourage the spread of woo? Most applicants are random people who think they have powers and hear of the challenge. They are usually not at all famous and often claim that they have never told anyone, let alone the general public, about their beliefs. When these people were asked to provide affidavits, they usually disappeared, apparently through being either unable or unwilling to get them. Now, however, they are not told to prove their abilities to someone, the first thing they are encouraged to do is go to the media, however minor, and shout their beliefs out to the world.
As thor76 said, he had never even thought of doing this, or of going somewhere like an old people's home to demonstrate his abilities. The problem is, this is exactly the sort of thing the media laps up. Instead of having someone claiming to heal people that no-one has ever heard of, we have someone getting publicity. A newspaper won't report this as "Local nut tries to heal people but fails when tested.", they will report it as "Local psychic tests powers in preparation for million dollar challenge. Area woman (68) says joints feel much better now."
The JREF is effectively encouraging woos to spread their beliefs among the credulous public, when most of those woos would never even have thought of doing so themselves. This is especially bad since it is obvious that most of them will never be tested anyway, so they are essentially providing free publicity advice with no negative side for the applicant.
Now, this is obviously a worst case scenario. It seems more likely that nothing will ever come of the attempts to publicise themselves and that most woos will remain exactly as they were, but with a local newspaper article mentioning them. However, I was wondering if anyone else has actually thought about this. Is it possible that the improvements to the challenge could actually harm the overall goals of the JREF while not really helping the challenge work any better?
The problem that thor76's posts actually made me think about is: does the media requirement actually encourage the spread of woo? Most applicants are random people who think they have powers and hear of the challenge. They are usually not at all famous and often claim that they have never told anyone, let alone the general public, about their beliefs. When these people were asked to provide affidavits, they usually disappeared, apparently through being either unable or unwilling to get them. Now, however, they are not told to prove their abilities to someone, the first thing they are encouraged to do is go to the media, however minor, and shout their beliefs out to the world.
As thor76 said, he had never even thought of doing this, or of going somewhere like an old people's home to demonstrate his abilities. The problem is, this is exactly the sort of thing the media laps up. Instead of having someone claiming to heal people that no-one has ever heard of, we have someone getting publicity. A newspaper won't report this as "Local nut tries to heal people but fails when tested.", they will report it as "Local psychic tests powers in preparation for million dollar challenge. Area woman (68) says joints feel much better now."
The JREF is effectively encouraging woos to spread their beliefs among the credulous public, when most of those woos would never even have thought of doing so themselves. This is especially bad since it is obvious that most of them will never be tested anyway, so they are essentially providing free publicity advice with no negative side for the applicant.
Now, this is obviously a worst case scenario. It seems more likely that nothing will ever come of the attempts to publicise themselves and that most woos will remain exactly as they were, but with a local newspaper article mentioning them. However, I was wondering if anyone else has actually thought about this. Is it possible that the improvements to the challenge could actually harm the overall goals of the JREF while not really helping the challenge work any better?
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