Poynter's Beth Winegarner lists a half-dozen ways for freelancers to build their businesses. Many of them boil down to finding a network and making the most of it: "Thanks to Facebook and Twitter, connecting with fellow freelancers has never been easier. Knowing who’s writing, and who they’re writing for, gives you a good sense of which publications are open to taking freelance work," Winegarner writes. Also, do your homework, and "pitch more than you can write."
Science writing news
The winner of the 2012 Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award, an annual prize for young science journalists, is Gayathri Vaidyanathan. Vaidyanathan received the award and its $1,000 prize for two stories in Nature, “The Wheat Stalker” and “The Cultured Chimpanzees;” one story in Greenwire,“Study ignites fresh concerns about drilling emissions;” and a story in Energywire, “Could risk analysis prevent future deepwater disasters?”
Actually, the problem is not as much plagiarism as unoriginality, Kelly McBride writes at Poynter. A reporter can't be blamed for starting with a Google search, but that creates risks: "These days, we must see always what others have written before we begin – and there’s so much that’s been written about any given topic because writing now is mostly the continuation of a conversation already in play." Also, Mathew Ingram on the Wente case.
In the latest of a Nieman Lab series, Dan Gillmor offers a plan to reposition undergraduate journalism teaching as "great liberal arts programs" with more emphasis on relevant skills such as scientific methodology, programming, and entrepreneurship: "All this suggests a considerably broader mission for journalism schools and programs than the one they’ve had in the past. It also suggests a huge opportunity for journalism schools," Gillmor writes.
If branding is a key to success in journalism now, then how can you use Twitter to achieve that? Here's one new way the giant microblogging service is rolling out, according to the 10,000 Words site. In short, you'll soon be able to add a Facebook-style cover photo that will appear on the web and many smartphone and tablet apps. See some samples here. More from Twitter's announcement and AllTwitter.
Jonah Lehrer resurfaces briefly to announce that he's writing about fraudulent science writing. What a surprise. Genetically manipulated organisms, giant rat tumors, and how to promote a book and movie. Scientific research declares that bad science writing is all the fault of scientists.
Sid Caesar once said that comedy has to be based on truth. By that measure, the humorous cover design of the 2011 annual report for Research Communications at Ohio State was based on the truth that the four people then on staff — Earle Holland, Jeff Grabmeier, Emily Caldwell, and Pam Frost Gorder — are, fundamentally, extreme personalities. From the Summer 2012 ScienceWriters.
We've all seen it happen. A reporter asks a question, and the person being interviewed gives an answer that sounds convincing but doesn't address the question. Denise Graveline writes about the risks sources run when they play that game. Referencing a recent Science Friday piece on the "artful dodge," Graveline asks: "What's your goal? To try to outwit the questioner or to convey credibility? In this case, you may be trading one for the other."
Ivan Oransky has disturbing news from Europe. French researchers offered a paper on genetically modified food to reporters under embargo, but only if the journalists pledged not to consult other scientists before the embargo lifted: "One of the main reasons for embargoes ... is to give reporters more time to write better stories. Part of how you do that is talking to outside experts." Comment from Carl Zimmer, Deborah Blum.