✍️Science Writing News Roundup #109 (August 4, 2022)
Write about science for kids, technology, art, health, biotechnology and climate change + Courses and fellowships for journalists who cover health care, environment, and climate.
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Opportunities
Calls for pitches: Write about science for kids, technology, art, health, biotechnology and climate change + Courses and fellowships for journalists who cover health care, environment, and climate (Bonus content for monthly supporters🚀)
The World Editors Forum Asia Chapter invites editors to nominate candidates in their newsrooms for the Journalism in the Age of Pandemics 2.0, a training program funded by the Temasek Foundation.
Resources
Monkeypox experts to follow on social media. The monkeypox story has been evolving quickly this year, moving from a pathogen that wasn’t on the radar for most people to a global outbreak that led the World Health Organization to declare a global health emergency on July 23. 👩🔬
988 and suicide prevention hotlines: A research roundup. For journalists covering the launch of 988, it helps to be familiar with the research on suicide prevention hotlines.
Articles
“Number soup”: Can we make it easier for readers to digest all the numbers journalists stuff into their stories? “Numbers do not speak for themselves. All the same, many people believe that they do. An ideology we call numerism, which accords a privileged epistemic status to quantification, is widespread.”
“Space is for everyone”: Meet the scientists trying to put otherworldly images into words. “It is a lot like science writing in general. You need to have a very good understanding of the content.” ☄️
Four takeaways from the first semester of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network: Katherine Dunn and Diego Arguedas Ortiz share what they've learnt from 100 journalists from around the world on covering climate change. 📝
A scientist’s opinion: interview with Ionica Smeets on hype in press releases. “One of the first things a journalist should realise is that press releases tend to overstate findings using these buzzwords.” 🗨️
How a local journalist reported on the Dixie fire in his backyard. Richard Bednarski shares the story behind his recent feature for The Xylom and The Sierra Nevada Ally on wildfires near his hometown of Quincy, California. 🔥
Videos/podcasts
Preventing Zoonotic Spillover: A Virtual Conversation with Dr. Jamie K. Reaser
The Stories of Seeds with Fiona McMillan-Webster: How do you write a book about something in which you’re not already an expert? Amanda Niehaus talks to science writer Fiona McMillan-Webster about her first book The Age of Seeds: How Plants Hacked Time and Why Our Future Depends on It. 🌱
News
Meet the recipients of the Kavli Prize week travel grants: The World Federation of Science Journalists and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters announced the recipients of the four travel grants for the Kavli Prize week, which will take place in Oslo, Norway, from September 2-8. 👏
Events
Media briefing, Wildfire resilience: buildings, water, and land use (August 4, 2022) 🧑🏿🚒
Introductory Storytelling Workshop (August 8, 2022)
Experts on Camera, Dr. Nick Allen: Teen mental health (August 9, 2022)
Are Hospitals Profiting by Shunning Patients of Color? (August 10, 2022)
Unprecedented: The challenges of reporting on a fast-paced pandemic (August 11, 2022)
Jobs and internships
To view 25 science writing jobs and internships, please click here to become a member! 💛
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