RE: Journalists (Audio and otherwise)
I have a 4-year B.Journalism (an Honours Program). I've never worked full time in the field, but obviously I know a bit about the career.
First of all, the "product" of journalism is words, not Audio (or Science, or Medicine). There is no need to be factually accurate to pass the checklist you would use to write a story. Merely asking someone a question and printing the answer is sufficient, regardless of how accurate that answer should be.
Secondly, Journalists have virtually no actual education in any topic that a normal 3-year Arts graduate would have had to take. The idea is to teach a wide range of topics in as short a time as possible (first two years). So where most college grads have taken, say, an introductory History class and an elective senior History class, possibly a series of Science classes with Labs, a full Economics class, and so on, the Journalism student takes a half class in History, a half class in Economics, only one Science with a Lab, and so on.*
They receive virtually no actually useful post-secondary education about anything, really. It's two years of fluff followed by two years of writing, structure of various types of writing, and a bunch of career study.
None of the above prepares you to write a science story beyond just regurgitating what you've been told or read, what the Press Release says, or write the sensational headline the Editor wants. Accuracy is far from the highest priority.
Now, in the defence of the profession, there are good writers, writers with Science backgrounds who understand the Scientific Method, who refuse to jump on bandwagons, or who can pen a thoughtful and illustrative piece. They just don't churn them out at the rate that the profession demands.
It's like a lot of college courses, actually. As the demand for graduates goes up (and that demand may be driven solely by the number of entrants) the quality goes down. Back in the day when there were no schools of Journalism you had hard working writers who earned a spot on the magazine, newspaper, or news broadcast. There not only is no need for them anymore, if there were, they would have to go back to school and get that degree before anyone would hire them.
* Why did I enrol in a Journalism program? Because unlike any other program, a student in the Journalism program can take any introductory class, in any college, and the electives that follow successful completion of the introductory class, and the University I attended had a ridiculous number of disciplines available. I stretched my 2-year Pre-Journalism program to almost five years, taking all kinds of classes across all kinds of disciplines. But most students in that program don't do that; they just do what they are told and get the degree and out.