By Kevin Begos
We've all been there: struggling to find a narrative, lede or metaphor to make a complicated science story understandable to the general public. Writers Michael D. Lemonick and Michael Shermer tried to explain their methods at a NASW 2007 Session, but in some cases left the audience wishing for more details.
Oct. 26, 2007Jerry E. Bishop, 76, former deputy news editor for science, technology, and medicine for the Wall Street Journal, died October 26, after a long fight against lung cancer. He was a NASW member for 45 years, a former editor of ScienceWriters, and past president of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.
Oct. 26, 2007By Emma Marris
At a session filled with video clips, multimedia web surfing and, yes, someone muttering at the display computer "I am a Mac person. How do you ... ," panelists at the "21st Century Science Writing: New Tools for Thinking Outside the Box" session of this year's NASW meeting talked blogs, YouTube, Facebook and online gambling. Each panelist presented a case study or two of how they use new technologies to tell stories better and faster. Oct. 23, 2007By Alison Drain
NASW took place as baseball's best were on the verge of a World Series — and players and writers alike worked to perfect their pitches.
Oct. 23, 2007By Sharon Levy
The speakers at "Taming the Digital Office" would find it odd, perhaps even perverse, that I'm drafting this story using pen and paper. My work style is clearly very different from that of the computer-savvy members of the panel.
Oct. 23, 2007By Jennifer Weeks
Session organizer and freelancer Karyn Hede designed this session for the 2007 NASW Science in Society meeting to spotlight intersections between food, wine, and science, and to suggest new story ideas in this field. As she noted, food safety stories have important science elements. For example, the nationwide outbreak of E. Coli 0157:H7 in 2006 that was traced to California spinach raised questions about how to avoid similar contamination and how often produce should be tested.
Oct. 23, 2007By Krista West
Science writers are in the business of communicating real, worthwhile, exciting science — working either as science journalists or public information officers. It's not about the job title; it's about communicating new scientific discoveries to the intended audience.
Oct. 23, 2007Geeta Anand, a New York-based senior special writer for the Wall Street Journal's investigative group, has been awarded the 2007 Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting for a powerful series of exhaustively reported stories displaying extraordinary narrative technique, emotional power, and sharp, intelligent analysis.
Sep. 15, 2007The winners of the 2007 Science-in-Society Journalism Awards, sponsored by the National Association of Science Writers are: Nicholas Wade for his book Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors (Penguin), Kenneth Weiss and Usha Lee McFarling for their Los Angeles Times series "Altered Oceans," and David Sington for his documentary Dimming the Sun, which appeared on PBS's NOVA television series.
Sep. 13, 2007