Jobs in science journalism at traditional media organizations are starting to return after their recession-driven decline, but these positions have emerged changed and much busier, said speakers at the ScienceWriters2012 session “Not dead yet: How science journalism is evolving at traditional news organizations” on October 27.
Event coverage
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Coverage begins in 2006 for the ScienceWriters meeting and 2009 for the AAAS meeting. To see programs for past ScienceWriters meetings, go to the ScienceWriters meeting site.
A public information officer writes up a press release for her institution, runs it past her source, and hands it off to a journalist who publishes a story about it. Research institutions have been using this news model for ages, but as Dylan put it, the times they are a-changin’.
On her deathbed, David Dobbs’ mother asked her children to cremate her body, releasing the ashes in the Pacific so she could be with a man named Angus. Dobbs embarked on a search for Angus, leading him to a story of wartime love, heartbreak, forensics and family. But no one seemed anxious to publish it. The New Yorker and Wired both rejected the idea. The story languished for years, until he pitched it to Evan Ratliff, editor at The Atavist, a newly launched publisher of ebooks.
In an intimate workshop designed to show writers how to transition to multimedia, Tom Linden moderated the panel, "As seen on TV & heard on radio: Science writing cross training" with panelists Cynthia Graber and Helen Chickering.
A lot of hand-waving goes on in the emerging field of archaeoacoustics. The pioneers of this field—which made its debut for the general science community Feb. 17 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Vancouver—are perhaps summoning the spirits who occupied the ritual spaces they study.
For decades, tobacco industries and lax standards of societal health kept the true cost of smoking hidden from the public. Today, the consequences of burning coal for energy are emerging—and the lessons could have a much faster impact, according to researchers speaking Feb. 19 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Vancouver.
European representatives from nuclear power, tobacco and genetically modified organism (GMO) industries pleaded for more transparency and public engagement from global policy makers on Feb. 18 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Vancouver.
Science has invested heavily in assessing and predicting the potential manifestations of climate change, but the newest frontier in climate science may emerge from the collective experiences of those people most affected by a changing world.
Peer review has long been the standard for quality science, but recent concerns about fraud among authors, bias among reviewers, and possible hindrance of scientific progress has led some to question the effectiveness of a process that relies on anonymous experts and occurs behind closed doors.