So you want to be a science writer...
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Transcript of So you want to be a science writer...
So You Want to Be A Science Writer…
NASW Mentorship ProgramBoston, February 15, 2013
Ivan Oransky, MDExecutive Editor, Reuters HealthCo-Founder, Retraction Watch
Treasurer, Association of Health Care JournalistsActing Director, SHERP, New York University
Twitter: @ivanoransky
How I Got Started
My First Mistakes
My Path• Summer internship at local Gannett daily• Med school (working at JAMA, writing op-eds)• Psychiatry internship (writing regular columns for
American Medical News, the Forward)• Freelancing ~ 1 year• First full-time journalism job: Editor-in-Chief of
Praxis Post• Followed by The Scientist, Scientific American,
Reuters Health
• 95 weekly science sections in newspapers in 1989
Columbia Journalism Review: http://www.cjr.org/currents/hard_numbers_jf2013.php
Who are Today’s Media, Really?
• 95 weekly science sections in newspapers in 1989
• 34 in 2005
Who are Today’s Media, Really?
Columbia Journalism Review: http://www.cjr.org/currents/hard_numbers_jf2013.php
• 95 weekly science sections in newspapers in 1989
• 34 in 2005• 19 in 2012
Who are Today’s Media, Really?
Columbia Journalism Review: http://www.cjr.org/currents/hard_numbers_jf2013.php
Who are Today’s Media, Really?
Who are Today’s Media, Really?
Trade Publications
• Specialized magazines, websites
• Typically strong business model
• Have given rise to many lay media careers
Should You Find a Niche?
• What do you obsess about?
• What do you want to be the “go-to” writer for?
Start Your Own Blog
http://skepticalscalpel.blogspot.com/
Start Your Own Blog
Getting the Word Out
• Use social media, including Twitter
• Forge relationships with other writers and editors you admire
• Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn – but also curate the best work of others
• Distinguish between personal voice and privacy
Resources
• Organizations (and training): AHCJ, NASW, SEJ
• Science writing/journalism programs: Columbia, CUNY, Hopkins, MIT, NYU, Texas A&M, UC Santa Cruz, UNC-Chapel Hill, others
• AAAS Mass Media Fellowship
• Kaiser Media Internships in Health Reporting
Contact Info/Acknowledgements
Twitter: @ivanoransky
http://retractionwatch.com
Thanks: Nancy Lapid, Reuters Health