✍️Science Writing News Roundup #12 (October 20, 2020)
How to combat misinformation + Google launches the Journalist Studio + Tips for communicating climate change + Follow #SciWri20 this week + Sharpen your editing skills
🧰 Resources
Misinformation can spread quickly online, but individuals can make a difference. The new Debunking Handbook 2020 provides tools to protect people against being misled and to correct falsehoods.
The Open Notebook updated its resource list “Diversity Style Guides for Journalists.” Is it preferable to refer to someone as a person with autism, or as an autistic person? What’s wrong with saying that someone “suffers from” a certain condition?
Google launches a suite of tech-powered tools for reporters, Journalist Studio, which will allow reporters to do their work more easily.
Why writers lose access to their own articles and what to do about it: “In this day and age where (almost) everything is published online, it’s more vital than ever for every writer to protect their work,” says Eric Hauch, founder of Authory.
Masterclass: Editing skills. Learn the skills to edit/write great copy and not rely on anyone else.
📝 Opportunities
Script Training is offering six science journalists the chance to work with three of Africa’s most respected media outlets: New Vision in Uganda, The Daily Nation in Kenya and The Citizen in Tanzania!
Lady Science is open for features submissions! They are looking for new pieces that cover any number of topics on women and gender in the history and popular culture of science, technology, and medicine.
The Materials Research Society is accepting applications for the Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Minority (UREM) Student Science Writing Program until October 20!
Writing for Your Audience: In this online workshop by The Alda Center, researchers will learn to share their work and its significance in ways that inspire and respond to audience needs.
Call for pitches: How are algorithms and data-driven decision-making affecting the world? The Decision Machines project investigates how big data, algorithms, machine learning, AI and other technologies and systems are increasingly affecting people’s lives.
Love astronomy, astrophysics, and science communication? Apply to write for Astrobites.
♻️ Climate change
With Planet, The Atlantic aims to unleash its entire newsroom on climate journalism: “We will cover climate change in the present tense—not as a distant threat, but as a force that is already reconfiguring business, culture, society, and life on Earth,” writes Robinson Meyer, staff writer at The Atlantic.
Climate change (and beyond): the importance of storytelling in science communication. Vitalba Crivello, Policy Analyst at the European Science-Media Hub, reflects on the lessons the pandemic offers for climate change storytelling.
Science journalist Vijay Shankar Balakrishnan is planning a workshop for journalists: “How to cover climate solutions stories right?” If you are interested, please fill out this form!
🧭 Tips
How to pitch and write an opinion piece for MIT Technology Review: The Editors of MIT Technology Review want to hear from people with interesting, provocative, and well-argued opinions on technology and where it’s taking us!
Curious about research blogging, but not sure where to start? Join writer and science communication researcher Alice Fleerackers to learn tips and tricks for communicating your work to online audiences (October 21, 2020)
From perfecting your craft to sharpening your sense of mission: Writing coach Roy Peter Clark answers questions from journalism students about what he has learned working as both a journalist and instructor.
Getting into science journalism: Haleema Ahmed, a journalist at SciSection, interviews David Shukman, BBC News' first science editor. David is one of the BBC’s most experienced correspondents, reporting on a wide range of topics from climate change to space travel to plastic pollution.
Registration is now closed for ScienceWriters2020, but you can join the conversation on Twitter (#SciWri20), there are many interesting tweets!
🎬 Videos
The Medical Research Council has partnered with The Observer for the Max Perutz Science Writing Award 2020. Watch the Virtual award ceremony, and meet the shortlist.
Stephen S. Morse talks with SWINY (Science Writers in New York) co-chair David Levine about early warning systems for forecasting potential pandemics.
Maham Maqsood, the Managing Editor of Scientia Pakistan, is breaking the wall of science journalism in Pakistan!
🏆 Awards
Oliver Morton, The Economist’s Briefings editor, has been named British Science Journalist of the Year by the Association of British Science Writers for pieces he has written on climate change and synthetic biology! Nazia Nasir covered the event on her blog, check it out: 👉Day 1, 👉Day 2 (with the list of all ABSW Awards winners) and 👉Day 3
Congratulations to Erica Klarreich and the Stats + Stories podcast team for winning the 2021 Joint Policy Board for Mathematics (JPBM) Communications Award! Erica Klarreich received the award for her work as a writer and popularizer of mathematics and science.
“Curing the incurable: teaching an old drug new tricks to fight ovarian cancer.” The winning essay in the Max Perutz science writing award 2020 was written by Sarah Taylor from the MRC Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine at the University of Edinburgh!
🎟️ Events
What does it take to be a successful science communicator? Speakers include Siri Carpenter, Matt Shipman, and Lylla Younes (October 20, 2020)
Advice for Talking Science to Normal People (October 20, 2020)
Online SciComm Coworking Session (October 20, 2020)
Science Stories with NYT journalist Apoorva Mandavilli (October 22, 2020)
The Open Notebook is 10 years old and they want to celebrate with you! (October 22, 2020)
Can We Use Science to Promote Behavior That Mitigates Covid-19? (October 22, 2020)
Award-winning journalist Ed Yong to discuss covering the Covid-19 pandemic in Amanpour Lecture (October 29, 2020)
Freelancer Etiquette: Navigating Writer-Editor Relationships (October 29, 2020)
The Art of the Interview with Frank Sesno (DC Science Writers Association, October 29, 2020)
Kavli Conversations on Science Communication: Writing About Weird Biology for More than Just Laughs (October 29, 2020)
Is science writing the solution? A panel discussion hosted by Professor Alice Roberts, followed by the announcement of the winner of the 2020 Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize (November 3, 2020)
AAAS Mass Media Fellowship Panel. Join alumni of the AAAS Mass Media Fellowship for a panel on their experiences being a fellow as well as applying to the program. (November 5, 2020)
Seminars for Underrepresented Science Writers 👉Writing a Science Book (November 4, 2020), 👉The Science Journalism Panel (November 10, 2020), 👉The Science Writer Panel (November 17, 2020)
Signals from the future: Emerging technologies in science journalism (November 4-5, 2020)
Science in the Newsroom Global Summit 2020 (November 23-24, 2020)
📖 Internships and career opportunities
Science Writer, The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA
Content Writer/Blogger, Poppy
Internships: Science Journalism, ESO, Garching, Germany
Science Writers, The European Science-Media Hub (ESMH)
Cell Press Winter Science Communication Internship 2021, Cambridge, MA
Health Tech Reporter, STAT, Boston, MA
Science Writer/In-house Journalist, Metabolic
Science Media Press Officer, Cancer Research UK, London
Various Communications Positions, Health Canada
Senior Communications Manager and Lead Science Writer, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, VA
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