SciWriRoundtable: Breaking News in Turbulent Times

All interested professionals and students are invited to register for the upcoming, free #SciWriRoundtable webinar “Breaking News in Turbulent Times” scheduled for Thursday, June 5, at 1 p.m. Eastern.

A panel of three journalists with experience covering federal cuts to science and health programs, climate-fueled Los Angeles wildfires, and the Department of Government Efficiency will offer tips for handling the fire hose of content in times of crisis and breaking news.

Our panel includes journalists and editors who’ve reported on disasters and recovery of those disasters in a time when federal agencies that respond to and monitor public health and safety are being dismantled. In this session, they’ll offer insight into how to connect to the public in increasingly chaotic and news-hostile social media and discuss how they approach considering counterpoints without entertaining misinformation/disinformation. Panelists will also share what they see as their role in establishing moral clarity to their work, how best to counter accusations of bias or fake news, and their approach to sorting the flurry of nonstop news and how to focus on the stories that make an impact.

Science Writers Roundtable: Breaking News in Turbulent Times
Presented by the NASW Board of Directors
Date: Thursday, June 5, 2025
Start time: 1 p.m. Eastern / 10 a.m. Pacific

Event registration link: https://sciencewriters-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6ViAOOXYTuedQb1VYmDLUw

Registration is free and open to all. NASW membership is not required.

This event will not be recorded.

Moderator:
Kelly Tyrrell
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Kelly oversees editorial storytelling, research communications, social media and more at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she is assistant vice chancellor for content strategy. She is also engagement editor for the science journalism non-profit, The Open Notebook, and a member of the board of the National Association of Science Writers. Kelly has been a science writer since 2011, when she completed the American Association for the Advancement of Science Mass Media Science and Engineering fellowship. She’s a former freelance and staff reporter, and also a recovering scientist.

Alejandra Borunda

Invited speakers:
Alejandra Borunda
NPR
Alejandra Borunda (she/her) is a reporter on NPR's Climate Desk, where she covers the intersection of climate change and health, including impacts of the Los Angeles fires this year. She reports on how climate change is affecting people's bodies and minds—and how people can, and are, protecting themselves and others. She previously was a staff writer at NatGeo.

Vittoria Elliott

Vittoria Elliott
Wired
Vittoria Elliott is a reporter for Wired, covering platforms and power. She was previously a reporter at Rest of World, where she covered disinformation and labor in markets outside the U.S. and Western Europe. She has worked with the New Humanitarian, Al Jazeera, and ProPublica.

Dave Levitan

Dave Levitan
Splinter
Dave Levitan has been deputy editor at Splinter since early 2024. Prior to that he wrote for dozens of publications on a variety of scientific topics, with a particular focus on climate change and the intersection of science and politics. He's the author of the 2017 book "Not A Scientist: How politicians mistake, misrepresent, and utterly mangle science."

#SciWriRoundtable

Curated by the Board of the National Association of Science Writers, the Science Writers Roundtable series is the organization’s main virtual events series dissecting and responding to the evergreen and emerging forces that shape the business of science news. Each event is moderated by an NASW Board Member in conversation among colleagues with experience and expertise relevant to journalists, writers, PIOs, and other communicators. No matter your role and identity within the science writing enterprise, we hope you will take away invaluable insights and information from our #SciWriRoundtable to become a more prepared, better equipped professional, educator, trainee, leader, or ally.

Founded in 1934 with a mission to fight for the free flow of science news, NASW is an organization of ~2,400 professional journalists, authors, editors, producers, public information officers, students and people who write and produce material intended to inform the public about science, health, engineering, and technology. To learn more, visit www.nasw.org and follow NASW on LinkedIn and Bluesky.