Alaska Case Study: Scientists Venturing Into Field with Journalists Improves Accuracy
Abstract
Issues such as climate change, stem cell research, public health vaccination, etc., can be fraught with public misunderstanding, myths, as well as deliberate distortions of the fundamental science. Journalists are adept at creating print, radio, and video content that can be both compelling and informative to the public. Yet most scientists have little time or training to devote to developing media content for the public and spend little time with journalists who cover science stories. We conducted a case study to examine whether the time and funding invested in exposing journalists to scientists in the field over several days would improve accuracy of media stories about complex scientific topics. Twelve journalists were selected from the 70 who applied for a four-day environmental journalism fellowship in Alaska. The final group achieved the goal of a broad geographic spectrum of the media outlets (small regional to large national organizations), medium (print, radio, online), and experience (early career to senior producers). Reporters met with a diverse group of scientists. The lessons learned and successful techniques will be presented. Initial results demonstrate that stories were highly accurate and rich with audio or visual content for lay audiences. The journalists have also maintained contact with the scientists, asking for leads on emerging stories and seeking new experts that can assist in their reporting. Science-based institutions should devote more funding to foster direct journalist-scientist interactions in the lab and field. These positive goals can be achieved: (1) more accurate dissemination of science information to the public; (2) a broader portion of the scientific community will become a resource to journalists instead of the same eloquent few in the community; (3) scientists will appreciate the skill and pressures of those who survive the media downsizing and provide media savvy content; and (4) the public may incorporate science evidence in their decisions as citizens, business leaders, and policymakers.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2008
- Bibcode:
- 2008AGUFMED41A0563E
- Keywords:
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- 0815 Informal education;
- 0825 Teaching methods;
- 1225 Global change from geodesy (1222;
- 1622;
- 1630;
- 1641;
- 1645;
- 4556);
- 6620 Science policy (0485);
- 9315 Arctic region (0718;
- 4207)