Last month in Raleigh, N.C., during the NASW business meeting, three dedicated volunteers were awarded the 2012 Diane McGurgan Service Award. Congratulations to Rick Bogren, Robert Irion, and Mari Jensen. Read on to learn more about their contributions and the award.
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On July 11, 2012, an investigation I had worked on for approximately six months appeared simultaneously on TheAtlantic.com, Good Morning America, and ABC News’ World News Tonight. I am a freelancer. If you know anything about the freelance marketplace, you’ll spot at once that those two sentences don’t go together.
Hurricane Sandy and the science of weather. There's no way to know if human-caused global warming made Sandy worse--but humans are definitely responsible for the degree of devastation . Links to many Sandy photos. Sandy killed thousands of lab mice and rats but gave life to birders. Sandy, Presidential politics, and suddenly climate change is an election issue at last. The politics of health care and the Nate Silver backlash. Yes, it's yet more on Jonah Lehrer.
Every science writer has probably been experienced the same problem at one point or another: you've stumbled upon a great topic, but it isn't a story. How do you find a good angle and a narrative arc that will help you craft a story that readers won't want to put down?
Moderator Nancy Shute began the “Wikipedia: The best, most hated resource for science communicators" seminar at ScienceWriters2012 by proposing this question to the audience. Dozens of sheepish science writers slowly raised their hands and a nervous giggle filled the room.
Alan Brown, moderator of the panel, “Surviving your mid-career crisis,” faced a scary question as a feature writer when the demand for long-form began to dwindle: how would he make a living?
Going to meetings can be overwhelming and expensive, but if you’re a science reporter or public information officer, you can’t afford to miss them.
I'm a big advocate of social networking and spend a lot of time convincing scientists that these platforms aren’t mindless time-sucks. But while it’s easy to make the argument for social media, it’s a whole lot harder to quantify the benefits and show that online efforts are actually paying off.
Reports are coming in quickly from the ScienceWriters2012 conference in Raleigh, N.C.. You can read the first reports on our conference reports page. They include "Do PIOs need science journalists any more?" and "Writing science ebooks in the real world." More reports will be posted in coming days, along with photos from conference events. Also, it's time to start thinking about ScienceWriters2013.