Admittedly, for all those glimmers of hope, the outlook for science journalism remains bleak. But it’s important to count the goods with the bads at any rate. Mooney, Kirshenbaum, and Zimmer are themselves good examples of the modern reporter—writing independently, freelancing for a variety of media platforms, and supplementing their incomes with teaching and talking whenever they can. With the loss of so many staff jobs, that entrepreneurial spirit is the only way that science journalism stands a chance.
The Observatory
04:27 PM - August 7, 2009
It’s Tanking; I’m Teaching…
And other current events in the tumultuous world of science journalism
‘See you on the other side’ - Meet Jessica Lum, a terminally ill 25-year-old who chose to spend what little time she had practicing journalism
#Realtalk: This is the best moment to be in journalism - The old stuff isn’t coming back, but that’s okay
Streams of consciousness - Millennials expect a steady diet of quick-hit, social-media-mediated bits and bytes. What does that mean for journalism?
Sticking with the truth - How ‘balanced’ coverage helped sustain the bogus claim that childhood vaccines can cause autism
An ink-stained stretch - Can Aaron Kushner save the Orange County Register—and the newspaper industry?
What to do if you find a baby bird
Expert advice
Inside Google’s secret lab
We might deplore the practice, but posting pictures of our food online is a way to bring everyone to the table
How the ‘World’s 50 Best’ list changed the way elite restaurants do business
“Every time the restaurant switched up its format, it got plenty of accompanying media coverage that let judges know they needed to return to see what was going on”
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
Uptown Messenger – Hyperlocal news for a neighborhood in New Orleans
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
Thanks for the link love--but I'd have to question whether a week-long science writing class amounts to a hill of beans in this crazy world. We'll have some fun, but Miles O'Brien won't get his job back as a result. I will focus mainly on teaching the students how to write well--a skill that transfers across many domains--but I will be sure to give them an accurate picture of the business I'm in.
#1 Posted by Carl Zimmer, CJR on Fri 7 Aug 2009 at 11:48 PM