How science journalists and scientists work together (or not)
Another peek behind the scenes of science journalism, but this time from a scientist’s point of view
Have you ever thought about where science news actually comes from? Obviously there were scientists involved in doing the work and journalists in covering the news, but you might not have considered how these two groups of people interacted to bring you that story. As one scientist recently discovered, that interaction is not always as smooth as it can be.
Science journalists have a pretty good idea of what scientists are like. They’ve all met scientists, studied under scientists, or even worked as scientists before becoming journalists. But scientists don’t always know much about journalists, and that can lead to misunderstandings, or worse: important science news not being reported.
Data visualisation researcher Lonni Besançon realised this late last year, when he was invited to speak at the World Conference for Science Journalists (WCSJ) in Pretoria. He wrote about his experience for Nature’s career column. (It’s paywalled, but the paywall is close to the end of the piece so you get the main message. After that, he just talks about how journalists and scientists also both work under time pressure.)
He also discussed his experience on LinkedIn, where he wrote
“Some of the things we scientists complain about in media coverage are problems we help create. We are often unavailable, too slow to answer, too eager to give quotes rather than context, and too reluctant to treat journalists as real partners in the scrutiny of science.”
All very good points, and good to remind scientists about. Especially considering the data from a new report from the Royal Society showed that researchers are increasingly aware that public engagement is important to their research.
Even though science journalism and science communication are not the same thing (one is balanced and somewhat dispassionate, the other is actively hyping science), from the point of view of a scientist these are both routes toward public engagement. When scientists think about getting their research in front of a wider audience, they’ll consider media coverage as one way to do that.
So it’s really helpful for scientists to understand how journalism works, and Lonni Besançon did a great job at explaining it. I would just want to add that he mainly describes investigative journalism, because that’s the kind of journalism that covers the same topics as he does (structural issues in scientific publishing). But there are other types of science journalism: coverage of new studies, features about broad scientific ideas, profiles and interviews of scientists to take people behind the scenes of the work, or science explainers behind breaking news topics. Not all of these require the months of secretive investigations that Besançon describes in his piece, and we often can report on publicly available information, as long as it is relevant to a broader narrative. (For example, plenty of journalists published about publicly available COVID data as part of larger stories about the pandemic.)
If you want to learn more about science journalism, there are many science journalism organisations around the world that you can get in touch with. I’m on the board of the ABSW and the EFSJ, but you can also look at the WFSJ website to find similar groups in many countries. Some have associate memberships open to people who aren’t themselves journalists but want to support the field.
The WCSJ meeting, which inspired Besançon’s article, will next be held in London in 2027, and the European Conference of Science Journalism is later this year in Hannover, Germany.
Science news on the internet
Ebola looks like it’s having the fastest spreading outbreak yet. Nature coverage by Ewen Callaway, Mariana Lenharo and Lauren Wolf
Inside an African lab that helped crack the hantavirus outbreak. By Jessica Donati for Reuters. Quote below:
“The plane landed in Senegal in the early hours of May 5. At the Institut Pasteur de Dakar, scientists worked through the night, using sophisticated lab equipment and powerful computers to deliver results awaited by health officials worldwide. Within 24 hours, they had produced a partial genome showing the illness affecting the passengers — cases five and six — was the Andes strain of hantavirus, known to spread through close human contact.”
How do erasers actually work? It’s surprisingly complicated. By Harriet Weber for Popular Science.
After Two Centuries of Mystery, This Is How Tobacco Plants Make Nicotine. By Jake Currie for Nautilus.
The first known dentist was actually a Neanderthal, study finds. By Hatty Willmoth for BBC Science Focus
This is another post of yours I would like my students to read. :) especially I would like them to see your explanation of the difference between science journalism and science communication