Charting a course for effective scientific communication: Balancing accuracy and promotion around the Virgin Galactic crash

Coverage of the inflight explosion of Virgin Galactic´s SpaceShipTwo on October 31^st, 2014, exposes a gap between Virgin´s polished public face and the technical realities of its aim to provide accessible space travel. In the days following the crash, Branson used his various media arms to communicate concern, support, and his faith in the importance of his company´s space mission. Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) began their ongoing investigation into the incident, releasing four video briefings in the week following the crash. These two media events — Branson´s online handling of the fallout from the incident, and the NTSB´s Acting Chairman Chris Hart´s briefings — provide an interesting case study in the way that scientific material is disseminated by and for expert and non-expert audiences, and how this interacts with expectations around the marketing and promotion of scientific discovery. This paper will analyze the contrasting coverage of Virgin Galactic´s SpaceShipTwo crash from the NTSB, Virgin´s media arms and popular journalism, to consider how we balance scientific accuracy with attempts to capture and promote public interest in the sciences.