✍️Science Writing News Roundup #206
Cosmos Magazine publishes AI-generated articles, drawing criticism from journalists, co-founders.
Jason Mast wins 2024 Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award: Jason Mast at STAT has won the 2024 Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award, CASW’s annual prize for a young science journalist, for his reporting at the intersection of medical science, business, and human lives. (Image via CASW)
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✍️Articles
Cosmos Magazine publishes AI-generated articles, drawing criticism from journalists, co-founders. Cosmos Magazine used a Walkley Foundation-administered grant to build a "custom AI service" to generate articles for its website, James Purtill reports.
Cosmos magazine’s AI-generated articles are bad for trust in science: Rolling out an AI experiment with a lack of transparency is at best ignorant, and at worst dangerous, writes Jackson Ryan.
If you want Americans to pay attention to climate change, just call it climate change. Americans are more familiar with — and more concerned about — “climate change” and “global warming” than they are about “climate crisis,” “climate emergency,” or “climate justice,” according to a new survey.
Why freelance journalism is the future: While journalism schools and newsrooms offer many programs that prepare and lead emerging journalists into newsroom staff jobs, there are scant resources for figuring out how to make a living as a freelancer.
Repetition makes climate misinformation feel more true — even for those who back climate science. “As our social media feeds fill up with AI-driven bots, sheer repetition of lies may erode the most essential resource for action on climate change — public support.”
Review: A Neurodivergent Reporter’s Odyssey of Self-Discovery. In “Do I Know You,” Sadie Dingfelder describes the challenges of living with prosopagnosia, or face blindness.
Duaa Eldeib Investigates the Faulty Forensic Test Used to Convict Mothers of Murder. While reporting on the stillbirth crisis, ProPublica reporter Duaa Eldeib encountered a forensic technique increasingly used to criminalize women whose babies had died: the “lung float” test.
Top Science and Nature Writing Tips for Young Writers: Dr. Sam Lloyd’s first book, Alight: A story of fire and nature, published in 2023 by CSIRO Publishing and illustrated by Samantha Metcalfe, is a children’s non-fiction narrative that shares the story of Australian plants and animals during a planned fire and gently explores the importance of healthy fire to the Australian bush.
Peter Dykstra, award-winning environmental journalist, died at 67. Peter Dykstra was an award-winning environmental journalist who used humor and wit to engage people on critical environmental issues.
🌎Resources
NEW: If you are a writer or journalist looking for help finding expert sources to answer your questions for science stories, please send me an email at sciencewriting@substack.com and I'll do my best to help you find names and contact information of scientists and other experts, so you can reach out directly.
Dengue: A primer and research roundup. Dengue is having a record-breaking year. To help you with your reporting, here is an overview of the mosquito-borne disease, followed by summaries of several research studies.
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👩🚀Opportunities
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. Application deadline extended to Friday, August 16.
Climate Tracker Asia is looking for aspiring climate storytellers to join the Content Creators Hub 3.0. Gain skills, connect with experts, and create impactful climate content. Apply by August 23, 2024
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🖼️News
Expanding Student-journalists’ Access to EurekAlert! In an effort to give aspiring journalists hands-on practice in the science news ecosystem and help prepare them for a successful professional career, EurekAlert! is expanding journalist-memberships to applicants working at student news publications, such as campus newspapers and radio stations.
The Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW) announces Meaghan Parker as next executive director: Currently a public policy fellow at the Wilson Center, Meaghan Parker was the executive director of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) from 2018 to 2023.
📺Videos & Podcasts
When an Article Turns Into a Book with Nicola Twilley. What happens when a project grows way beyond its original scope? Christie Aschwanden and Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer of Emerging Form talk with Nicola Twilley about her new book Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet and Ourselves, originally envisioned as an article.
Journey and Vision for Global Science Journalism: As the co-founder and executive director of The Open Notebook, Siri Carpenter has dedicated her career to enhancing the quality of science journalism worldwide. Listeners will gain insight into what motivated her to start this nonprofit in 2010 and the initial goals she envisioned. Siri shares the challenges she encountered during the early stages of The Open Notebook and how she overcame them.
Talking Shop: Digging Into VP Kamala Harris’s Climate Record. In this Talking Shop with Covering Climate Now, two expert journalists gave their journalism colleagues a rundown of Harris’s climate record to help elevate their campaign coverage.
✏️Events
Research for the Newsroom: Practical tools for adding depth to breaking and enterprise stories (August 19 – September 15, 2024)
Science Journalism Forum (October 28-31, 2024)
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📢Jobs
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