98th ESA Annual Meeting (August 4 -- 9, 2013)

August 03 - 09, 2013

WK 52

Science Journalism: From 'Little Story on the Prairie' to Worldwide News

Bloom Town: The Wild Life of American Cities. Out of Africa and Into the American Midwest. Snails in the Waters, Disease in the Villages. Where Have All Our Winters Gone? These headlines introduced recent ecology news stories. Did these articles attract readers? If so, what’s the secret to their success? Participants in this workshop will learn how to present science in an interesting way while retaining factual accuracy — the key to good science communication and science journalism. Science journalism aims to transmute scientific concepts and results from jargon-based language often understandable only by scientists, to news relevant to the lives of general readers (listeners/viewers). The workshop explores science writing for a non-scientific audience. Participants will review examples of good science writing from media outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post and New Scientist; “dissect” the structure of science news and feature articles; discuss how popular coverage of science has changed in recent years; and learn the basics of science journalism. Participants will also have the opportunity to write a general audience science article about research presented at the conference, and individual feedback will be offered to those interested.