It's not just a matter of rewriting the latest research for non-scientists, Michelle Nijhuis writes in the New York Times. The best science writing connects readers with the humanity of science: "It’s essentially what Dr. Watson does for Sherlock Holmes: By reacquainting the head with the heart, we science writers tell the story of the frustrations, false starts, triumphs and breakthroughs that lead to the solution — or, in many cases, to even more questions."
State of the craft
President Obama's 2009 transparency pledge hasn't translated into better responses to Freedom of Information Act requests. In fact, it's getting worse, writes David Cay Johnston, president of Investigative Reporters and Editors: "Federal agencies routinely flout the 1966 Freedom of Information Act, the so-called Open Government Act of 2007 that strengthens the 1966 law, and Obama's 2009 executive order directing agencies to err on the side of disclosure, not secrecy."
It's ditched its paywall, given up on Kindle singles, and now wants to raise money through NPR-style membership drives. All in all, it's been a rocky first year for the online long-form site MATTER, and you can read the details in this unsigned update. Also, co-founder Jim Giles says it's been hard to find content: "I’ve talked to a lot of writers who say, 'Oh yeah yeah, I heard about you' … Well, we’re here and we have money — pitch us."
It's not the first complaint from a writer who was asked to work for free, but Tim Kreider's op-ed in the New York Times appears to have struck a chord, with more than 600 comments so far: "People who would consider it a bizarre breach of conduct to expect anyone to give them a haircut or a can of soda at no cost will ask you, with a straight face and a clear conscience, whether you wouldn’t be willing to write an essay or draw an illustration for them for nothing."
Hemingway and Fitzgerald had a legendary editor in Maxwell Perkins, who even got his own biography. But the days when publishing houses had editors who edited are long gone, Marjorie Braman writes in Publishers Weekly: "A publisher once said to me, almost in passing, 'We don't pay you to edit.' The real message was: 'Editing is not crucial. If you're an editor, what matters is acquiring.'" Braman now works as a freelance editor and says that model may be the future.
David Roberts spent a decade at the online magazine Grist, but now he's taking a year off, having overdosed on social media: "I know I’m not the only one tweeting in the bathroom. I’m online so much that I’ve started caring about 'memes.' I feel the need to comment on everything, to have a 'take,' preferably a 'smart take.' The online world, which I struggle to remember represents only a tiny, unrepresentative slice of the American public, has become my world."
Journalism is in decline and science journalism peaked 30 years, or so everyone says. Except Tom Levenson, who writes that web-based publications like the Atavist, Matter, and Aeon are delivering quality work: "There has been a collapse of venues (and employment) for science writers schooled, as I was, in the pre-digital journalism world [but] the reality is that right now is the best time I recall for readers of science writing." Follow-up.
USA Today's Dan Vergano probably didn't mean to set off a social media explosion with his views on whether science writers are outcasts in major newsrooms. But that's about what happened, as evidenced by the dozens of comments attached to Vergano's Q&A, in which he asks: "Where is the science writer sitting at the editor-in-chief’s desk at Time, or the New Yorker, or the Atlantic? Why is David Brooks explaining social science or neuroscience to readers?"
The judge who certified Authors Guild vs. Google as a class action has been overruled and Google's "fair use" defense must be dealt with first, Rick Anderson writes at Scholarly Kitchen: "Only a couple of years ago, most commentators were saying that the Google Books project was dead in the water. It now seems clear that the Second Circuit’s decision breathes new life into it." More from the Guild, Publishers Weekly.
Computer-assisted reporting has been around since the 1980s, Northwestern's Rich Gordon writes, but today it takes two additional skills sets to produce data journalism — a news application developer and a data visualization specialist: "News organizations seeking to fill these roles are finding it difficult. Quite simply, there is more demand for people with these skills — both inside and outside of journalism — than there are people qualified to fill them."