News archive - [Document Announcement] Science Journalism’s Unlikely Golden Age
"Recently, one of us (Erika Check Hayden) initiated a study of how science journalists can make better use of emerging communication technologies. In collaboration with a technology partner, Erika Check Hayden and her team are investigating how to communicate about complex science topics, such as climate change, more effectively through social media. And in conjunction with the November 2017 Science of Science Communication III Sackler Colloquium in Washington, DC, seed funding was awarded for two research proposals explicitly linking science communication scholars and practitioners. Notably, however, the grants were awarded to teams including institutional science communicators rather than science journalists.
If the extinction of mass-market journalism itself once seemed almost inevitable, perhaps science and environmental journalism have now passed through an evolutionary bottleneck. Enough of the traditional craft and practice has been salvaged and enough new experiments and innovations have emerged to support a new burst of innovation and diversification. But only if the surrounding environment stabilizes into something more supportive of robust science and environmental journalism will this new radiation flourish. As it is, many of the brightest examples of recent success in science and environmental journalism are just a funding cycle or market downturn away from financial collapse. The current golden age could not have been predicted even a decade ago, and its tenuous success cannot be taken for granted in the decade to come."
- General/no specific focus
- Cross-thematic/Interdisciplinary
Entry created by Admin WBC-RTI.info on September 24, 2021
Modified on September 24, 2021
