✍️Science Writing News Roundup #218
The future of science journalism and publishing: Will AI rewrite the script? + AI detection tool helps journalists identify and combat deepfakes.
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🖼️Opportunities
KSJ Opens Application Cycle for 2025-26 Fellowships. This year, KSJ will run simultaneous application cycles for two of its fellowship programs. Both the Academic-Year Fellowship and the Africa and Middle East Fellowship are accepting applications until January 15, 2025.
The AAAS Diverse Voices in Science Journalism Internship takes place at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of AAAS’s Science magazine, the largest interdisciplinary journal in the world. The program is a paid, 11-week experience, under the guidance of the weekly magazine’s award-winning staff of professional science writers and editors. Applications for Summer 2025 are now open and will close January 10, 2025.
More opportunities and calls for pitches👉Bonus content for monthly supporters.
⏰News
The Hakai Magazine team is joining bioGraphic to deepen its coverage of ocean and coastal stories. Both outlets faced budget shortfalls and uncertain futures in 2024, and with this opportunity they can continue publishing the independent journalism that their loyal readers love.
The Sick Times announces one year of covering the Long COVID crisis: The non-profit, queer-led newsroom was founded by science journalists Betsy Ladyzhets and Miles W. Griffis, and started publishing stories on November 14, 2023.
Winners of the European Science Journalist of the Year Award 2024. The 2024 winner is Stéphane Horel, an investigative journalist at Le Monde. The runners up are: Tim Kalvelage, a freelance writer and photographer focussing on ocean and climate research, and Dora Kršul, an investigative journalist with Telegram.hr news portal.
Cameron Stewart has won the 2024 UNSW Press Bragg Prize for Science Writing for the essay ‘Heroes of Zero’. ‘Heroes of Zero’ introduces readers to research by Michelle Haber and her team at the Children’s Cancer Institute, which aims to combat childhood cancer in Australia.
🎞️Videos
The future of science journalism and publishing: Will AI rewrite the script? AI is beginning to impact scientific publishing and journalism, fueling both excitement and concern.
Trump’s Return: What Comes Next for Health Care? Donald Trump’s return to power will usher in major changes to the country’s health policies, social safety net, and the federal agencies that oversee many of these programs.
Science, health, environment, and tech journalists share their best hacks and tips on pitching, contracts, taxes, and everything else you need to know to freelance well and profitably.
Make Climate Reporting Your Next Beat? The Chicago Tribune's Adriana Pérez found a vital new career path by embracing the complexities of climate and environment reporting.
The final event of the Fall 2024 Health Storytelling Author Q&A series by the Emory Center for the Study of Human Health: Author and Senior Fellow Maryn McKenna interviews Lina Zeldovich about her great new book on phages -- “The Living Medicine: How a Lifesaving Cure Was Nearly Lost—and Why It Will Rescue Us When Antibiotics Fail” -- just released by St. Martin’s Press this October 2024.
‘No one can see you now’: What states are doing to boost primary care | AHCJ Webinar. Evidence abounds that access to primary care improves health and lowers costs. According to one estimate, the U.S. could save $67 billion a year if everyone saw a primary care provider as their main source of care.
🗺️Articles
AI detection tool helps journalists identify and combat deepfakes. An AI detection tool created by TrueMedia intends to help by identifying signs of manipulated pictures and videos posted on social media.
Getting the facts right: A peek inside the fact-checking process for science feature stories.
Neither humans-in-the-loop nor transparency labels will save the news media when it comes to AI. “The notion of a human needing to intervene in every decision undercuts the idea of speeding up various tasks,” argues Felix M. Simon.
Reporter uncovers potential data manipulation by top researcher. An eye-opening investigation by Charles Piller for Science found evidence of research misconduct, including multiple instances of image manipulation and other data anomalies, from prominent neuroscientist and top NIH official Eliezer Masliah.
A Day in the Life of Katherine Bourzac. Katherine Bourzac is a freelance reporter and editor based in San Francisco. Over a 20-year career in science journalism, Katie has had two stints freelancing and has previously worked as a staff editor at MIT Technology Review and Chemical & Engineering News.
📆Events
The IIJ 2025 Freelance Journalism Conference (February 27 - 28, 2025)
More events👉Bonus content for monthly supporters.
🕙Jobs
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