Future of Journalism
nisbetmc | May 19, 2010Tomorrow morning at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, I will be addressing the annual conference of the University Research Magazine Association. I have pasted the text of my prepared remarks below with relevant links embedded. I will post a follow up on Friday highlighting questions, comments, and reactions. Readers are strongly encouraged to weigh in with their own reactions.
As professional science communicators and journalists, you are living in an era of convergence between two major trends in society.
The first trend is a dominant focus of this conference: Technology, audience…
nisbetmc | May 13, 2010
Next week the Howard Hughes Medical Institute will be hosting the annual conference of the University Research Magazine Association (URMA). The association is comprised of editors and staffers at magazines that cover the research and scholarly activities of universities, nonprofit research centers, and institutes in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Europe.
Depending on your field and professional background, you may or may not be familiar with publications such as Yale Medicine, UNC's Endeavors, the HHMI Bulletin, Florida State's Research in Review, and Arizona State's Research Stories and…
nisbetmc | February 9, 2010
Tonight, PBS Frontline airs "Flying Cheap," a co-production with American University's Investigative Reporting Workshop. Above is an excerpt from the Frontline report and below is a description. The production has also received strong advance reviews from the New York Times and Washington Post.
One year after the deadly airline crash of Continental 3407 in Buffalo, NY, FRONTLINE investigates the accident and discovers a dramatically changed airline industry, where regional carriers now account for half of the nation's daily departures. The rise of the regionals and arrival of low-cost…
nisbetmc | February 2, 2010
In his State of the Union speech last week, President Obama called for significant government investment in nuclear energy, telling Congress that "to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. And that means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country." The declaration brought members from both parties to their feet with some of the strongest applause of the evening (video above.)
This week, as the NY Times reports, the Administration in its proposed budget plans to triple the size of the Energy…
nisbetmc | October 19, 2009In today's Washington Post, former editor Leonard Downie and communication scholar Michael Schudson preview the release of a major new study on the future of news. Below are some of the key recommendations of the report which reflect similar themes I have described in recent articles and at this blog specific to new models for science journalism. In particular, Downie and Schudson echo the need for government funding of new journalism ventures in areas such as science and health and the vital role at the local level that public media organizations and universities can and should play. […
nisbetmc | September 18, 2009At Knight Science Tracker, Charlie Petit has the details on one of the first examples of non-profit, localized coverage of science, a trend I have argued is necessary and worthy of investment on the part of universities, foundations, and government agencies.
nisbetmc | September 17, 2009
I am in Banff this week participating in a fascinating workshop on the scientific, clinical, ethical, and communication issues related to personalized medicine and genomics. A special issue of the journal Public Health Genomics (formerly Community Genetics) will focus on the themes covered at the workshop. I will be contributing a review article on research and issues related to the media and public engagement. Early access publication of the articles should occur in the spring.
On a related topic, earlier this week, the Columbia Journalism Review posted a commentary that I co-authored…
nisbetmc | June 22, 2009In the lead editorial at Science last week, Harvard University's Cristine Russell discusses the many emerging possibilities in science journalism. It's a mistake to frame current events as a "crisis," correctly explains Russell, but rather to look at trends as an opportunity to diversify, innovate, and experiment with new models and formats, expanding the network of science journalists into a truly global community, retraining journalists to produce content for new platforms and to cover related dimensions of policy and ethics, while broadening and diversifying audiences.
For journalists from…
nisbetmc | June 15, 2009The Associated Press announced Friday that it had entered into a partnership with four non-profit investigative journalism organizations to distribute their work to more than 1,500 American newspapers who are AP members.
As I commented Friday over at Science Journalism Tracker, the model developed in investigative journalism offers a blueprint for similar non-profit initiatives in science and environmental journalism. The announcement by the AP demonstrates the potential for non-profit ventures to reach a large audience while filling in a major gap in existing coverage at regional and local…
nisbetmc | June 1, 2009
The future of science journalism and communication will involve three key strategies:
1. "Going broad" and reaching a diversity of audiences across non-traditional media platforms such as entertainment film and television, new genres of documentary film, new forms of multi-media storytelling, new genres involving satire and comedy, and through collaborations with the creative arts.
2. "Going deep" and creating new non-profit forms of digital science journalism, especially at the local or regional level, that offer rich reservoirs of information via content contributed by professional…
nisbetmc | May 11, 2009The Washington Post's media reporter has joined the ranks of those who fear the imminent demise of journalism. I don't share this outlook. In fact, I see journalism--and science journalism in particular--on the edge of transformation and renewal, but more on this over the coming weeks.
In the meantime, consider what Howard Kurtz has to offer in his column today.