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Help us bring the attention of the EC on Science Journalism!

La Commissione Europea sta conducendo un sondaggio per raccogliere opinioni e idee sull’indirizzo futuro dei finanziamenti “Science in Society”, cui anche noi come Swim – e in alcuni casi come individui/gruppi professionali – vorremmo partecipare sempre più in futuro, anche nel contesto dell’EUSJA.

I consigli che stanno circolando per rendere particolarmente efficace dal nostro punto di vista questa consultazione sono i seguenti:

• Non selezionate troppi argomenti; solo quelli davvero rilevanti

• Nel rispondere alla domanda “The development of future policy options for the SiS Programme is of key concern for this study. Which is your preferred policy option for future SiS actions in general?” riflettete con calma, poi se sceglierete l’opzione ‘others’ potrete indicare per esempio qualcosa come: “Support professional science journalism and efforts to improve its quality coming from within the profession”.

• L’ultima domanda è la più importante, anche perché permette di aggiungere commenti sul perché il giornalismo scientifico – sempre più spesso confuso erroneamente con la comunicazione della scienza – ha un compito cruciale per la società, ma vive un periodo di profonda crisi.

E chissà che non si muova qualcosa…

Dear members of the European associations of science journalists, You are hereby invited to participate in the public consultation process within the study “Interim evaluation and assessment of the future options for Science in Society (SiS) Actions”.

This study has been assigned by the DG Research & Innovation of the European Commission and is being jointly conducted by Technopolis Group, Fraunhofer ISI and Science-Metrix.

You may find a letter of introduction from the EC here <http://www.isi.fraunhofer.de/isi-media/docs/p/sis-evaluation-letter-of-introduction.pdf> .

The public consultation process is based on a prospective analysis that aims to identify future policy options for the SiS-Programme regarding topics such as public engagement in science, science communication and education, ethics, gender, or open access. This survey is open to experts and the interested public alike. We hope that both groups will participate as we want to obtain as complete a picture as possible of the interests and opinions in the various communities.

The survey can be accessed through this link:  <http://ww4.efs-survey.com/uc/fraunhofer_isi_cc_p/1063/>

We kindly ask you to pass on the link to the survey via your respective national networks, newsgroups or personal contacts.

Please feel free to post the link in thematically relevant social networks. We would also like you to consider distributing it via your mailing list and newsletters. It is vital that a diverse and geographically widespread audience participates in the survey to help draft the future policy options in the SiS-Programme.

The survey consists of seven thematic areas (e.g. gender, ethics, science communication, etc.), each of which contains max. 9 statements which you are asked to assess as an interested individual and / or based on your professional background. It is up to the respondents which topic(s) they want to select.

Providing answers to each thematic area should not take more than approximately 10-15 minutes.

If you have any enquiries or comments please do not hesitate to contact us at Eval_SiS@isi.fraunhofer.de

Thank you very much for your support! Susanne Bührer & Thomas Stehnken (Fraunhofer ISI)

«Know Thyself» close to 200 responses, also thanks to the WFSJ

Do you want to be the respondent #200?

If so, hurry up! Also thanks to the note published by the World Federation of Science Journalists on its website, we are very close to reaching that goal (but we won’t stop there, for sure).

«Know thyself, science writer»: a new online survey about world science journalism

«Know thyself, science writer»: in a time of crisis that is bringing deep changes in the media landscape and according to many is putting science journalism “under threat”, the association “Science Writers in Italy” just launched an online survey asking science journalists from all over the world – and especially from Europe – to dedicate a few minutes of their busy time to help sketch the profession as they live it.

Beltramini’s view on sponsored press events on AHCJ’s Covering Europe

Italian journalist argues against pharma-sponsored press event

By Amelia Beltramini

During my stay in England at the European conference on health journalism co-sponsored by AHCJ and Coventry University, one issue caught my attention.

The discussion turned to press events sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. It was argued that accepting invitations had advantages, such as savings in travel expenses, accommodations and conference registration fees.

Some participants argued that these goodies came with no side effects, provided that the report of the conference published by the journalist would close with a disclaimer that the author was a guest of the company. Readers should understand what this implies.

I strongly disagree with this opinion for five reasons:

Follows on the section of AHCJ devoted to Covering Europe.

A few days left to apply for the EU Health Prize for Journalists

We have just received this letter from the European Commission for Health and Consumers:

The Directorate General for Health and Consumers is pleased to announce you that the 3rd edition of the EU Health Prize for Journalists was launched on the 30th of March and the submission deadline is set on the 24th of July 2011.

The prize aims at stimulating high-quality journalism that raises awareness of issues related to healthcare and patients’ rights. The scope of topics ranges from Alzheimers to vaccination and a special prize will be awarded to the best article on smoking cessation. The dedicated website in 22 languages is http://ec.europa.eu/health-eu/journalist_prize/2011/index_en.htm

 

Health in the Headlines Conference – Coventry June 23-24

The first European “Health in the Headlines” Conference organised by UK colleague John Lister with the sponsorship of the Association of Health Care Journalists will take place at the Coventry University on June 23rd and 24th.

Among the many oustanding speakers, there will be Gary Schwitzer, Ivan Oransky, Trudy Lieberman, Françoise Clouzeau and AHCJ’s President Charlie Ornstein.

We wish the organisers and speakers the best success!