In the world of 24-hour deadlines, it’s a rare luxury to talk candidly with colleagues about the ethical dilemmas science writers regularly face. The Saturday afternoon session “Covering Scientific Controversies” offered just that: space to probe the gray areas that arise when we tackle divisive issues.
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.
Many freelance writers start off as generalists and, either by plan or accident, end up specializing in a particular topic because it can save them time and get them more work. In fact, of the six panelists who discussed specialization at Saturday afternoon’s “Beat It” session, only one identified himself as a complete generalist.
Science writing is everywhere — even in non-science publications. But how does a science writer cross over to those markets? A standing-room-only crowd gathered to hear the answer on Saturday morning at Science Writers 2011 in Flagstaff.
In a session mediated by freelancer Karen Infeld Blum, three seasoned correspondents talked about tips and tricks to get the most out of interviews with challenging subjects.
Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” greeted receptive attendees of David Dobbs’ Saturday afternoon workshop “Going Long: How to Structure the Longform Narrative – with Help From Music, Theater, and Film.” Dobbs played portions of the track, an example of the rock pioneers’ exploration of song structure, to kick off a fascinating talk and discussion about the use of form and structure in longform narrative stories.
When Siri Carpenter opened the Pitch Slam session, just two writers had signed up to pitch. But an hour and a half later, nearly a dozen ideas had been put to the panel of seven editors. Not a single assignment was made, but both the pitchers and many others in the room likely walked out with insight about how these editors think and some specific suggestions for selling an idea.
The media industry — science writers, particularly — can no longer afford to look the other way when it comes understanding the fundamental changes occurring in how Americans are getting their news in our “crazy, mixed-up digital world,” said Esther Thorson, plenary session speaker at ScienceWriters 2011.
Science Writers 2011 kicked off Saturday morning with a business meeting (coffee and carbs were provided). Before committee members shared the exciting things going on, including various opportunities for money, Ron Winslow of the Finance Committee assured members “we are solvent.”
“How Science Writing Saved My Life,” was one of the highlights of the ScienceWriters 2011 opening session, which followed the high-energy format of an Ignite event. In rapid succession, ten presenters had exactly five minutes each to speak on a topic of their choice. Each presenter used twenty slides, which were set to auto-advance every 15 seconds.