✍️Science Writing News Roundup #124
Navigating Elon Musk’s Twitterpocalypse + Picking a publication to pitch
AAAS and Subaru announced the finalists for the 2023 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books in the Children’s Science Picture Book category. The Prize celebrates outstanding science writing and illustration for children and young adults and is meant to encourage the writing and publishing of high-quality science books for all ages.
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🌍Resources
Some tips if you’re looking to pick up part-time freelance work + What you need to know about freelancing as a Science Writer👉Bonus content for monthly supporters.
Picking a publication to pitch: So you’ve discovered a great story idea—congratulations! But with so many publication options, how do you pick which one to pitch?
Extreme rainfall offers journalists a deluge of environment, climate stories.
When to quote survey results: How to judge quality and recognize red flags.
A beginner’s guide to Mastodon, the open-source Twitter alternative.
🚀Opportunities
Calls for pitches to write about science for kids, food, medicine, environment, science and technology, climate change, and more + A workshop for journalists about medicine and health + Reporting grants and fellowships for science writers👉Bonus content for monthly supporters.
The MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing (GPSW) is accepting applications for the class of 2024 - apply now! The MIT GPSW seeks a diversity of applicants from around the world. The program offers generous financial aid to accepted applicants.
🕯️Articles
Navigating Elon Musk’s Twitterpocalypse: Twitter has had its problems, but the new direction could both spell trouble and be an opportunity for news organizations.
Twitter chaos endangers public safety, emergency managers warn. Twitter is a crucial communication tool during disasters, but impersonators and other problems under Elon Musk’s leadership have emergency managers on edge.
Twitter was influential in the pandemic. Are we better for it? Twitter — and how scientists use it — is changing, and it’s worth assessing what that means for the science community, and ultimately for the public.
11 (and counting) things journalism loses if Elon Musk destroys Twitter. Goodbye to screenshotted best bits, DMs, “that tweet should be a story”…
Time for scientists and journalists to deepen ties: SciDev.Net organized an online networking event early this month to discuss how to deepen the relationship between scientists and journalists and overcome the barriers journalists face in reaching scientists.
📢Tips
6 tips for improving news coverage of older people: Two experienced journalists offer tips for better, deeper news coverage of aging-related issues and stories involving older people.
Covering climate in the Global South: ideas from Paraguay, Indonesia, Africa and beyond. “If we don’t tell what can be done, we’re not telling the whole picture. There is a window of opportunity for change,” says Jazmín Acuña.
🎬Videos
Small Videos, Big Ideas - the BBC’s Melissa Hogenboom on Engaging Science Journalism.
Preventing the Next Pandemic: A roundtable discussion with author Laurie Garrett
Kendra Pierre-Louis: Looking at Climate Change Through the Lens of Solutions.
They write about poop. So what are the rest of us so freaked out about? A Kavli Conversation on Science Communication with Lina Zeldovich and Bryn Nelson. Moderated by Anna Rothschild.
📣Tweets
🎁 Events
The Best STEM Books for Kids of 2022 – SciFri Zoom Call-in (November 21, 2022)
Takeaways from COP27: The Physician Perspective (November 22, 2022)
CIFAR Virtual Talks: Race & Research (November 23, 2022)
Fiver Fridays - Dr. Agnes Arnold-Forster - Pitching Articles to Magazines and Newspapers. Agnes Arnold-Forster is a historian of medicine, healthcare, work, and the emotions. (November 25, 2022)
Through the Climate Lens: A Conference on Climate Storytelling in Southeast Asia (November 25-26, 2022)
Royal Society Science Book Prize award ceremony (November 29, 2022)
Freelancing FAQs: An Interactive Workshop (November 29, 2022)
Covering Maternal Health in Post-Roe America (December 5, 2022)
🔖 Jobs and internships
👉Check out 20 science writing jobs and internships, click here to become a member!
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