Let’s say you want to dip your toes into graphic journalism but are worried because you think you can’t draw. Luckily, making graphic journalism isn’t so much a test of your drawing abilities as it is about making words and images work together. You can begin illustrating even without an art background. Here are some strategies for getting started.
With the advent of direct-to-consumer genetic testing, an increasing number of people are learning that they were conceived using donor sperm. In rare cases, it turns out that their biological fathers are actually the doctors who offered fertility treatments to their parents. A situation like this involving an Indiana fertility doctor piqued The Atlantic reporter Sarah Zhang’s interest, leading her to track down his biological children. Her investigation reveals how much society’s attitude toward donor insemination has changed.
The National Park Service greenlighted a project studying the effects of climate change on coastal parks—then buried its results. Reporter Elizabeth Shogren, of Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, tells TON how she used public-records laws to pull back the curtain on scientific censorship by top Park Service officials.
Journalists who work for themselves and are planning on having a baby are on their own when it comes to budgeting for family leave, deciding when to disclose their plans to editors, and figuring out how much time they should take. But this also puts freelance reporters in a unique position to take advantage of all their job flexibility when transitioning into parenthood.
Reporters regularly receive feedback in the form of line edits on story drafts. But broader input on one’s overarching writing quality can be tough to glean from editors. Getting this kind of big-picture assessment from editors can help journalists identify problematic patterns in their writing, understand how to craft their stories to better match a publication’s style, and set more ambitious goals for their next pieces. Here’s how to ask for broad feedback on your writing.
Many science writers today have a beat—a defined area of research that they cover, such as astronomy, energy, the environment, or health. The best beat reporters become the go-to writers in these fields, get scoops, and provide deep dives into new developments. Here’s a look at the tools they use to sort through the chaos and find newsworthy stories.
Science journalists often default to framing stories around the scientists whose work forms the backbone of our reporting. But first-person anecdotes allow journalists to connect with readers by lending authority and emotional authenticity to stories, building narrative tension, or lightening the tone of a piece. First-person can also be used to check personal biases and reveal conflicts of interest, avoid awkward phrasing, or breathe life into arcane concepts.
Journalists are constantly inundated with pitches from people in media relations. But how do you draw the line between industry hype and accuracy? What steps do you need to take to weigh proprietary claims? Four science writers share their thoughts on evaluating industry information when peer-reviewed, published data are unavailable.
Scientists project that Tangier Island, a fishing community in the Chesapeake Bay, might be uninhabitable in 25 years—but locals don’t buy it. In her Pacific Standard portrait of a cozy town fighting a changing climate and a changing culture, Elaina Plott shows what climate science and climate politics look like at street level. She spoke to TON about the power of asking sources basic questions, the keys to small-town field reporting, and why opinions and empathy might both be overrated.
Across the United States, there’s a secret network of women working outside the law and the medical establishment to provide cheap and accessible home abortions. Investigative reporter Lizzie Presser shares how she discovered their story and brought their work into the light.
Some consider science journalism more technical and knowledge-heavy than other beats. That’s why there are often space writers with degrees in astronomy or health reporters who used to be doctors. But does that mean those are the only people who can do the job well? Do you need a science degree to be a science reporter? We reopen the classic debate with five science reporters.
The challenge of making complex science topics clear and entertaining can be even greater for audio journalists, who can’t use visual aids or rely on the audience to reread a confusing section. Yet Science Friday, Science Vs, and Radiolab have all discovered unique ways to meet this challenge. Now they share some of the most important lessons they’ve learned along the way.
The Great American Eclipse was arguably the largest science story of 2017, with nearly every U.S. newsroom covering it. But what that coverage looked like—and why it took the form it did—varied significantly from outlet to outlet. Examining the approaches taken by four different organizations—BuzzFeed, The Washington Post, The Oregonian, and Science News—can reveal important lessons in shaping coverage of a large science event.
When ProPublica and NPR put out a call for stories about women who died or nearly died in pregnancy or childbirth, they got thousands of replies. But only 200 about the experiences of black women—even though they are most affected by this issue. That’s when ProPublica engagement reporter Adriana Gallardo got creative and used a StoryCorps model to get more black women involved in the conversation.
Many science reporters get their start in other beats, including crime, business, fashion, or politics. But science touches every aspect of life, so it’s no wonder many of them say the skills they developed in those beats have made them better-equipped—and sometimes uniquely positioned—to report on science.
Many freelancers question whether they can ask for more than what’s offered for assignments—and, if so, how and when they should ask. Seeking answers to these quandaries, we surveyed and interviewed freelancers and editors about this practice. Our results show that, on the whole, it rarely hurts to ask. In fact, doing so tends to pay off. The key is asking in the right way.
With pay rates stagnant at best, many freelance science journalists combine journalism with work for institutional clients. But it may be unclear what, if any, conflicts of interest these other assignments create. Despite a dearth of guidance on these issues, many freelancers manage to mix journalism with other work by following carefully placed boundaries and making transparency a priority.
Experts say the U.S. health care system wastes an estimated $765 billion each year. In a year-long ProPublica investigation, reporter Marshall Allen searched for the sources of these squandered dollars. His resulting series chronicles several cases of needless spending, including a shocking story about a nearly $2,000 ear piercing. Here, Allen tells Rachel Zamzow about what inspired him to tackle this gargantuan topic and how he found real people to make his story come alive.
While many traditional print publications struggle to stay afloat, new all-digital science magazines are launching, and some online outlets are expanding their health and science desks. Rachel Zamzow chats with the editors and publishers of five new digital science publications or desks about their outlets’ inner workings, growing pains, and some helpful tips they’ve learned along the way.
Excessive data mining, cherry-picking of subjects and endpoints, peeking at data before a study has ended, and other questionable practices that scientists may deploy in pursuit of significant and eye-catching results, are often hard to detect. We show how science journalists can learn to catch many such tricks.
Though disabled people make up the nation’s largest minority group, their voices are often left out of stories about disabilities. In addition, many media stories frame disability in a negative light and perpetuate damaging stigmas. Other coverage reflects a misguided attempt to inspire, but often ends up devaluing people with disabilities in the process. For journalists who want to do better, there are a few major areas to consider improving.
In an award-winning 2015 Science story, “Cradle of Life,” Mexico City-based journalist Lizzie Wade tagged along with scientists trying to pinpoint the event that gave rise to the Amazon’s staggering biodiversity. The group trekked through the Peruvian Amazon on a grueling 10-hour hike, crossing three different ecosystems and many microclimates to collect samples that might offer clues to the region’s past. Here, Wade talks about her experience reporting and writing her award-winning story.
Some of the biggest science stories, from climate change to gene editing to infectious disease, are global stories. Journalists based outside the United States and Europe, where the majority of major science-journalism publications are based, are well-positioned to find and report these kinds of stories. So why don’t foreign bylines more often appear in U.S. and European publications that have the largest international audiences? As an early-career Mexican science journalist, I have been asking myself that question for quite a while now.
Almost all patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, die from respiratory failure, usually within two to four years of initial diagnosis. But sometimes, patients get better. Duke University neurologist Richard Bedlack investigates such ALS “reversals,” in hopes of discovering something such people share in common that could offer answers about the disease. In a January 2017 episode of the podcast Reply All, Peter Andrey Smith and Sruthi Pinnamaneni talked with Bedlack; here, they tell the story behind the story.
PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 1, 2020
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