Khalil A. Cassimally thinks they do, and says as much in this post on the Scitable site. "The number of quality science bloggers on the web is ever-increasing. And yet, the sizes of reputable science blogging networks are not," Cassimally writes. In the comments, big names such as Carl Zimmer, Ed Yong, David Dobbs and Martin Robbins tell him he's wrong. "The people doing well now generally didn't wait for an opportunity, they created one," Robbins responds.
Science writing news
Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Daily News got his Kindle Single on the Occupy Wall Street movement out almost instantly. Here he talks to Robert Niles of the Online Journalism Review about the process. "One benefit of the Kindle Single is that it's a good format for experimentation; for example, I've long had an interest in other topics outside of politics, such as sports, and this might be the best way to take a risk with a new direction."
The digital media age serves up uncertainty as well as opportunity. One solution to the anemic job pool for science writers is to grow beyond journalism into entrepreneurship, specifically into digital publishing. Training for this kind of career growth is exactly what the Knight Digital Media Center offers in its intensive, weeklong workshop called Independent Journalist. From the Fall 2011 ScienceWriters.
Dean Starkman argues in the Columbia Journalism Review that they are, and that crowd-sourcing will never be journalism's salvation. "No reader — no community of readers — knew more about Standard Oil than Ida Tarbell," Starkman writes. Also: "Seeing news as a commodity, and a near valueless one ... is a fundamental conceptual error." Some of his targets respond in the comments. More from Ken Doctor and Emily Bell.
The headline tells you all you need to know. So turn off the football game and prepare to receive some wisdom. The Center of the American West in Boulder, Colo., named McPhee its 2011 Wallace Stegner Award recipient, and the great man read from his Encounters with the Archdruid and took questions. The Open Notebook has an edited transcript of the Q&A. And you can download an MP3 of the entire session (1:20 in length) at the center's site.
An institution swept by scandal; an idol's reputation tarnished. It was a bad week for the Poynter Institute even if it was better than Penn State's. Star blogger Jim Romenesko got a public scolding from his boss and quit. Journalists arose in his defense. See the comments at Poynter. Also: Choire Sicha, David Carr, Poynter's responses, and the CJR editor who started it.
Leaders of seven journalism organizations including NASW are protesting the government's republishing of the National Practitioner Data Bank under new restrictions. "We believe these rules are ill-advised, unenforceable and probably unconstitutional," the groups wrote Thursday to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services. "Restricting how reporters use public data is an attempt at prior restraint." Read the letter.
Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute offers advice in a recorded online chat session for writers who don't have a coach and have to find their own way to enlightment. "Writer, coach thyself," Clark says. "Coaching yourself sounds like a contradiction in terms, like trying to tickle yourself into hysterics. But it works. And once you gain the confidence of coaching yourself, you will grow in the ability to help other needy writers."
By the time WCSJ2011 opened in late June, organizers felt entitled to breathe a sigh of relief. The biennial international conference had come together despite a last-minute relocation from conflict-ridden Cairo, Egypt, to Doha, Qatar, and the attendees had arrived mostly without incident. All seemed well. Until about the third day. From the Fall 2011 ScienceWriters.