✍️Science Writing News Roundup #203
Getting started with a gun violence prevention beat + What’s a nationally representative sample? + Covering Climate Now announces winners of the 2024 CCNow Journalism Awards.
Covering Climate Now Announces Winners of the 2024 CCNow Journalism Awards: Now in its fourth year, the CCNow awards program has become a recognized standard for excellence. This year’s winners hail from around the world, from outlets big and small, and, together, their work represents the leading edge of climate storytelling. Image: The 2024 CCNow Journalists of the Year are Tristan Ahtone, an editor-at-large for Grist; Audrey Cerdan, climate editor at France Télévisions, and Rachel Ramirez, a climate reporter at CNN (Image credit: Covering Climate Now)
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🧰Articles
Making sense of science: Using LLMs to help reporters understand complex research. Can AI models save reporters time in figuring out an unfamiliar field’s jargon?
Getting started with a gun violence prevention beat: Publications across the U.S. have been trying to move away from traditional crime coverage and toward more nuanced, prevention-focused storytelling.
‘Antidotes to despair’: five things we’ve learned from the world’s best climate journalists. From climate crisis being a crime story to presenting basic weather news in the context of climate change, here are some lessons from journalists.
What’s a nationally representative sample? 5 things you need to know to report accurately on research: Knowing what a nationally representative sample is — and isn't — will help you avoid errors in covering clinical trials, opinion polls and other research.
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🌍News
KSJ and STAT Name 2024-25 Sharon Begley Science Reporting Fellow: Multitalented science journalist Anil Oza will spend a year working at STAT and learning at MIT.
CASW to present workshop on covering climate and health Nov. 8: Journalists who cover topics at the intersection of climate change and health are invited to apply to attend a full-day pre-conference workshop to be presented in Raleigh, N.C., on November 8, in connection with ScienceWriters2024.
Royal Society announces judging panel for 2024 Trivedi Science Book Prize. This year’s chair will be Professor of Evolutionary Biomechanics at the Royal Veterinary College and Royal Society Fellow Professor John Hutchinson. He will be joined by Booker Prize-winning author and screenwriter Eleanor Catton; New Scientist Comment and Culture Editor Alison Flood; teacher, broadcaster and writer Bobby Seagull; and lecturer in Functional Materials at Imperial College London, and Royal Society University Research Fellow, Dr. Jess Wade.
🎟️Videos & Podcasts
Interview with Science Writer Sara Phillips: Sara is an award-winning science writer and editor based in Melbourne, Australia. She edited the 2020, 10th-anniversary edition of the Best Australian Science Writing.
Connector Chat: Reporting on hot-button topics as a science writer: Lessons from abortion coverage. Moderated by Naseem Miller, senior health editor at The Journalist’s Resource, the panel explored research on news coverage of abortion, how to find and protect sources, how to conduct interviews with sensitivity, reporting may be different for hot-button topics than with other types of science and health stories.
Climate change and the green energy transition: This briefing covered what the latest scientific research says about progress towards meeting national and global greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets, and where major challenges remain.
👩🏫Opportunities
Don't miss the ABSW's UK Conference of Science Journalists - UKCSJ24 - the biennial conference that provides science journalists and writers with a unique opportunity for professional development and networking. Diversity Scholarships are now open to application to cover all costs of attending - see their diversity scholarship pages to find out more and apply by end of July 2024.
Trauma Assistance Fund for Freelancers: This fund provides confidential and timely psychological counselling for freelance journalists experiencing mental health issues in response to a recent and acute work-related stressor. The fund is open for applications from freelancers of any nationality with relevant Canadian journalistic connections, wherever they are based.
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📸Events
How to amp up your reporting using LexisNexis tools (July 16, 2024)
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✏️Jobs
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