«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.

Risk and bioethics at WCSJ2011 in Doha (from a European perspective)

The following article, by Swim board member Daniela Ovadia, has just come out in the newsletter of EUSJA.

European science journalism was represented at WCSJ 2011 in Doha also by two panelists from Italy: Fabio Turone, who produced a panel on the communication of risk, and myself, in charge of a session on bioethics.

Moderated by Wilson Da Silva, editor in chief of Cosmos, the most widely read science popularisation magazine in Australia, the panel on risk offered three very diverse points of view on the issue.

source: http://www.davidajao.com/blog/2009/01/07/nigerians-and-crash-helmets

Nigeria’s Akin Jimoh, who is the anglophone coordinator for the SjCOOP mentoring program of the World Federation of Science Journalists, discussed about the many difficulties a reporter has to overcome when trying to involve the population of African countries in the debate on risk, difficulties summarised in the picture of two motorbike riders wearing ludicrous – but not uncommon – substitutes for the helmets mandated by the law.

The lively and entertaining contribution by former TV reporter David Ropeik, book author and instructor at Harvard, focused on the elements that contribute to make objective hazards more or less scary, which should be known and used with caution by media professionals: from trust to familiarity, from choice to uncertainty through the dualism between risk and benefit, natural and man-made and between catastrophic and chronic, and more. His extensive research on the perception of risk was recently summarised in the book “How Risky Is It, Really?: Why Our Fears Don’t Always Match the Facts”.

Finally Fabio Turone analysed the available medical litterature on the quality of health and specifically risk reporting, to stress the importance of providing lifelong training for science journalists by journalists, specifically to practice and reinforce a critical approach. He presented the existing attempts at establishing a stronger and more effective alliance among scientific institutions, health policy makers and the media professionals in which the latter are considered “professional equals”.

From left: David Ropeik, Fabio Turone, Akin Jimoh and the moderator Wilson Da Silva.

Bioethics is more and more important in health reporting. It’s harder and harder for a science journalist to separate opinion from scientific evidence in topics such as end of life decisions or the  assessment of consciousness and coma. The panel in Doha was composed by journalists from the US – Joe Palca, science correspondent from NPR, and Jon Cohen, correspondent with Science who acted as moderator – the Canadian bioethicist Eric Racine, from Mc Gill University in Montréal, and myself. Racine illustrated his research on media reporting in cases that have a strong bioethical angle, especially with regards with neurology and neuroscience. He discussed the media coverage of the Terry Schiavo case in American and British newspapers through the analysis of the language used to describe her medical history, the most common mistakes in reporting and the misunderstanding of the experts’ comments.

Joe Palca discussed the hypes and hopes of stem cell research in neurological diseases and raised the question of how to report such an important issue. Finally I summarized two important cases involving end-of-life decisions that were debated in Italy for many years: the case of Piergiorgio Welby (an ASL patient who asked to withdraw assisted ventilation) and the case of Eluana Englaro (a coma patient with many similarietis with the Schiavo’s story). The speech benefited from the work by Gianna Milano, an Italian colleague who followed both cases for many years but could not attend the Doha conference.

From left: Daniela Ovadia, Eric Racine, Jon Cohen and Joe Palca.

The final discussion on the role of science journalism in ethical and scientific controversies sparked a debate about the difference between informing and teaching. The majority declared that the role of journalists is to inform and not to teach nor to judge the experts’ or the families’ position. An interesting part of the discussion involved colleagues from Islamic countries, where the bioethics debate is still in its infancy but is an emerging issue.

Scrivi di scienza? Entra in Science Writers in Italy!

Ti occupi di scienza e tecnologia nei media? Vuoi avere accesso a riviste internazionali e partecipare a conferenze in Italia e all’estero?

Entra in Science Writers in Italy, l’associazione aperta a giornalisti, editor e blogger che fa parte della European Union of Science Journalists’ Associations e della World Federation of Science Journalists, e opera in sinergia con l’Association of Health Care Journalists.

Perché associarsi?

In concreto, chi aderisce può:

•      Partecipare all’attività delle mailing-list dell’associazione, caratterizzate da un proficuo scambio di opinioni e suggerimenti pratici molto apprezzati dagli iscritti.

•      Ottenere visibilità sul sito dell’associazione (http://www.sciencewriters.it)

•      Iscriversi al gruppo Facebook

•      Partecipare ai viaggi di studio organizzati a livello europeo. Tra i più recenti: Falling Walls Conference (Germania), Helmholtz Research Centre (Germania), Scanbalt (Polonia), Uppsala (Svezia), EMBL e DKFZ (Heidelberg, Germania)

•      Prendere parte all’ideazione e realizzazione di iniziative di confronto, di formazione e di ricerca a livello nazionale e internazionale

•      Avere accesso ad alcuni tra i più importanti e pregiati database della letteratura scientifica e biomedica

Chi può iscriversi?

L’associazione è aperta a chi si occupa professionalmente di giornalismo scientifico o di comunicazione della scienza, e più in generale a chi scrive di scienza o si occupa di iniziative di carattere culturale sulla scienza.

Le domande di ammissione, corredate di curriculum professionale, vengono sottoposte all’insindacabile giudizio del comitato direttivo dell’associazione.

Lo statuto dell’associazione è consultabile al seguente indirizzo: http://sciencewritersinitaly.wordpress.com/about-us/lo-statuto-bylaws/

 Come ci si iscrive?

Le domande di iscrizione, accompagnate da un curriculum professionale, devono essere spedite all’indirizzo iscrizioni (at) sciencewriters.it .

L’esito della domanda viene comunicato solitamente nel giro di pochi giorni: in caso di accettazione, l’iscrizione si completa con il pagamento della quota annua di iscrizione, che per tutto il 2012 è fissata in 50 euro.

The state of Science Journalism according to the WFSJ

The World Federation of Science Journalists has recently published in its website the report of the activities in the years 2009-2001 and several documents summarizing the very successful World Conference of Science Journalists held in Doha (Qatar) with an attendance of 800 delegates from 89 countries.

World Conference of Science Journalists in Doha Report is online

WFSJ 2009-2011 Report & minutes of the Doha General Assembly

Apply for a scholarship to the 2012 Kavli Award ceremony in Oslo

From the website of the World Federation of Science Journalists:

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters offers scholarships to cover 2012 awards in Oslo

June 26, 2011 posted in Competitions

There’s a door opening wide into astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience, and science journalists can apply for front-row seats to cover a landmark event honouring researchers in these fields.

The door is in Oslo, Norway, but it’s open for applications from science reporters anywhere – from Chile to China and all points in between.

The $1 million Kavli Prize ceremony is scheduled for Oslo, Sept. 3–6, 2012. The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and The Norwegian Ministry of Research and Education are offering up to seven journalists transportation from their home countries, a week’s accommodation, and lectures by some of the world’s best popularizers of science.

They will also attend the Kavli Prize Science Forum with the 2012 topic being “science and global health.”

The World Federation of Science Journalists will choose the journalists on behalf of by the Norwegian ministry and academy and winners will be announced during the 2012 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Feb. 16–20, in Vancouver, Canada.

Scientists in the running for the $1 million Kavli prizes for 2012 will be chosen in May or June of next year by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and will be presented by King Harald of Norway in September.

The Kavli Prize is a partnership between The Kavli Foundation, The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research and The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. The scholarships are funded by the Norwegian ministry and academy.

The Kavli Foundation is the brainchild of Norwegian-born Fred Kavli, a physicist and entrepreneur who came to the United States after the Second World War and invented flight control sensors for aircraft, devices which operate in most commercial and military aircraft today.

In a 2007 interview with actor Alan Alda on the foundation website http://www.kavlifoundation.org/fred-kavli, Kavli said that after he sold his business in 2000 he wanted to “do something of long-range benefit to human beings,” and do it in his chosen field of science, “especially physics.” (Alda, along with Åse Kleveland, former Norwegian culture minister, hosted the 2010 Kavli Awards ceremony.) For their founder, the Kavli Awards – in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience – were defined to encompass everything “from the biggest, to the smallest, to the most complex” knowledge being pursued by researchers today.

Applications should be emailed to WFSJ info@wfsj.org by Jan. 15, 2012. An application package should include the journalist’s CV and co-ordinates, identification pages from his or her passport, three articles or audio/video files on astrophysics, nanoscience or neuroscience (in the original language), and a one-page essay in English on why the applicant should win this competition.

Lo Swim-team è in partenza per il congresso di Doha

La partecipazione italiana al congresso mondiale dei giornalisti scientifici che inizierà domenica 26 giugno sarà caratterizzata dalla presenza di numerosi iscritti della nostra associazione, in veste di panelist (Gianna Milano, Daniela Ovadia e Fabio Turone) e di delegati (oltre a Nicla Panciera che viene da Trento, dalla Lombardia verranno Mariachiara Albicocco, Amelia Beltramini, Valentina Murelli e Chiara Palmerini, che insieme al collega Alberto Giuffrè hanno beneficiato delle borse messe a bando dall’Ordine dei Giornalisti della Lombardia per i suoi iscritti).
Nella capitale dell’emirato del Qatar contiamo di incontrare centinaia di colleghi da tutto il mondo (e  magari anche altri colleghi italiani) e di discutere del presente e delle prospettive future dell’affascinante professione del giornalista scientifico, che sta attraversando numerose trasformazioni e deve saper cogliere le occasioni di rinnovamento profondo che la situazione di generale crisi del giornalismo porta con sé.

Annunciati i vincitori della borsa dell’OdG per Doha

Assegnate le borse di studio dell’Odg lombardo per il Congresso mondiale dei giornalisti scientifici

L’Ordine dei giornalisti della Lombardia ha messo a disposizione 5 borse di 800 euro ciascuna, quale contributo alle spese di viaggio e iscrizione per il Congresso mondiale dei giornalisti scientifici (World Federation of Science Journalists), in programma dal 26 al 30 giugno 2011 a Doha (Qatar).

Dopo l’esame delle richieste pervenute le borse sono state assegnate a: Mariachiara Albicocco, Amelia Beltramini, Alberto Giuffrè, Valentina Murelli, Chiara Palmerini.

 

Congratulazioni ai vincitori!

Ancora pochi giorni per andare a Doha con le borse dell’Ordine

Mancano pochi giorni alla scadenza del bando per le borse da 800 euro che l’Ordine dei Giornalisti della Lombardia ha messo a disposizione degli iscritti che vogliono partecipare al Congresso mondiale dei giornalisti scientifici che si terrà a Doha, in Qatar, alla fine di giugno.

Il bando dell’Ordine dei Giornalisti è consultabile qui: la somma di 800 euro è sufficiente a coprire la quasi totalità dei costi (per la registrazione al congresso gli iscritti a Swim hanno diritto alla quota scontata), dal momento che gli organizzatori hanno un’ottima convenzione con un albergo cinque stelle (50 dollari, circa 40 euro, a notte per la singola: il doppio per la doppia) e con le Qatar Airlines (15-25% di sconto).
Per quanto riguarda il volo aereo, vi consigliamo comunque di fare una valutazione comparata dei costi, per esempio su skyscanner.it, perché si trovano biglietti andata e ritorno a meno di 500 euro.

Infine, se avete bisogno di ulteriori motivi per venire, ecco un po’ di suggerimenti turistici da Repubblica Viaggi (“Doha tra archistar e tradizione”).

Investigative science journalism, ethics and new technologies in the future of the WFSJ

Investigative science journalism, journalistic ethics, new technologies, linguistic diversity and connections between regions: these are the five points that the newly elected members of the board proposed to put on top of the agenda of the World Federation of Science Journalists.

Michele Catanzaro analyses their practical proposals on the website of the Catalan Association of Science Communicators: What do the WFSJ board new members propose?