0 1987 Society for Scientific Exploration Society and Scientific Anomalies: Common Knowledge About the Loch Ness Monster

Abstract-The public image of the Loch Ness monster is that of a mythical creature appropriately talked of in a joking manner. The sporadic and often jocular coverage of the subject in the press is consistent with that image. But magazine articles since the 1950s have tended to project a belief in the reality of the animals; the books on the subject even more so. Thus the public view and that purveyed by the mass media are at variance with the views of those who have studied the matter closely and recently. The public image still reflects the consensus of 50 years ago, when the subject first made news: editorial policies governing press coverage of the Loch Ness controversy are an instructive exemplar of how and what society learns about scientific anomalies. In science, observational and theoretical claims are made and judged under well-established conventions. Apparatus, methods, modes of analyzing data are clearly specified by the claimants, and such specification is made easy by the fact that practitioners are trained within a shared tradition. Further, prob