Science writing news

Thomas Hayden marks the once-popular newsmagazine's demise with a look back at its science reporting, which he says looms larger in memory than it did in life: "Newsweek, along with Time and US News & World Report, used to be nearly ubiquitous. They had impact that’s hard to imagine with today’s fractured and distracted audiences — and yes, I realize I’m sounding really old right now. But they also kept a lot of voices and stories out of the conversation."

We're talking about your blog, not your fence. As Joel Friedlander explains on TheBookDesigner.com, a set of foundation posts is among the first things your blog should have: "Sometimes these are called 'evergreen content,' 'cornerstone content,' or 'pillar posts,' but the idea is the same. These are articles that are so basic that newcomers to your site will need them now, or a couple of years from now." Friedlander also discusses the architecture of a foundation post.

The New York Times gets taken to Gary Schwitzer's woodshed for a story about a study on coffee consumption and oral cancer deaths. It's not that the story wasn't accurate, Schwitzer writes on HealthNewsReview.org. But it should have emphasized that such "observational" studies cannot show cause-and-effect relationships: "Please, Grey Lady, don’t let your writers contribute to the back-and-forth ping-pong games of 'coffee lowers risk,' 'coffee heightens risk' stories."

"I broke the cancer cure story for the Associated Press," Bob Cullen writes on the About Writing and Editing blog. Did you miss it? No surprise. The story — from 1972 — never hit the A-wire. A New York editor ran it past an AP science writer and it all fell apart. Cullen: "It may be lamentable when cynicism dominates a reporter’s outlook on all phases of life, but it’s a close cousin of skepticism, and skepticism is as important to a journalist as his laptop."

Kelley Benham French’s series about her child's premature birth and struggle to live wins praise from Nieman Storyboard: "Care went into every sentence but not in any precious look-at-me-I’m-a-Writer way. French’s sentences do every kind of work: They shock and lull and devastate and soothe, and at just the right moment, and in just the right way. Every sentence serves the narrative. Every sentence earned its right to be there, and belongs."

About those "real people" that journalists like to include in their stories: Be careful, epidemiologist Bonnie Kerker warned science and health care writers at a New York event. “Anecdotal evidence is an oxymoron,” she said, urging her audience to use anecdotes only to illustrate the findings of a study, not the exception. Kerker and two other speakers, including NASW's Ivan Oransky, appeared Nov. 29 at a joint SWINY/AHCJ meeting at the City University of New York.

Curtis Brainard at CJR writes about several major bloggers leaving Discover's network just as the print magazine packs up and moves from New York to Waukesha, Wisc., with a new staff. Gone soon to National Geographic are Carl Zimmer and Ed Yong. Also leaving are Phil Plait for Slate and Sean Carroll for his own site. Writes Brainard: "The changes in Discover’s blog lineup reflect increasing competition among different outlets to capture the best science bloggers."

With the Internet's emergence comes a new issue: When to credit an earlier source of your story. At 10,000 Words, Meranda Watling offers advice and a tip on adding value: "If you can’t be first, be the most complete source or be the most original. Maybe you can connect the news of the day to some past event or some other business that will be affected by it in an unexpected way," she says. "Connect the dots for your readers. That’s what they’re coming to you for."

It doesn't matter how good your news release is, Denise Graveline writes, if reporters can't get its subject to come to the phone for a few quotes: "Even if your information is newsworthy and timely, you've done the right things to get it to the right reporter, and your heart is pure (or even if it isn't), all it takes is an expert who blows off the interview to result in no coverage." Graveline offers tips for PIOs on training experts in dealing with the news media.