Time: 11:00-12:30
Venue: Lecture hall 12 (university main building)
How does the landscape of science journalism and science communication look in different parts of the world? The speakers are asked – from their worldview — to formulate three major findings reflecting the past, the present or the future of our profession.
Producer: WCSJ2013
Moderator:
Luisa Massarani, Regional Coordinator of Latin America and the Caribbean, SciDev.Net, and Museum of Life, House of Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Brazil
Speakers:
Angela Posada-Swafford, US Senior Science Correspondent and Columnist, MUY INTERESANTE magazine/Spain and Mexico editions
Bobby Ramakant, Health Editor at Citizen News Service (CNS), India (WCSJ2013 scholarship)
Shiow Chin, Journalist, The Star, Malaysia (WCSJ2013 scholarship)
Dina Bēma, Editor in chief, Ilustrētā Zinātne (Illustrated Science), Latvia
Dr. Luisa Massarani is a Brazilian science journalist since 1987, and she joins both practical and research activities on science communication. She is the Latin American and the Caribbeancoordinator of SciDev.Net (www.scidev.net), the world’s leading source of reliable and authoritative news, views and analysis on information about science and technology for global development. She also works at the Museum of Life, a nice hands on science museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, linked to the leading biomedical research institute Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.
Ángela Posada-Swafford is uniquely straddled upon three worlds, three cultures, and three styles of science journalism: Born in Colombia in 1960 and living in Miami Beach, she has been the US Senior Science Correspondent for Muy Interesante magazine, edited in Madrid, for a decade, and lately also a columnist and feature writer for the Mexican edition of the magazine. She was the first Hispanic journalist to be selected as a Knight Fellow in Science Journalism at MIT and Harvard in 2000, and the first Hispanic selected by the NSF to work at the South Pole, Antarctica, as a journalist, in 2006. In October 2011 she served as the Co-chair of the 21st Conference of the National Society of Environmental Journalists, SEJ, in Miami. She has been writing stories on science, the environment, and exploration for 25 years for all media platforms, digital, print and broadcast, in Spanish and English. In the past her articles, radio documentaries and TV have appeared in Astronomy, WIRED, National Geographic, Esquire, New Scientist, The Boston Globe, The Miami Herald, El Tiempo in Colombia, Gatopardo Magazine, National Public Radio and Discovery Channel Latin America. On December 2012, she was honored by President Juan Manuel Santos as one of 100 distinguished Colombians living abroad.
Bobby Ramakant serves as the Health Editor at Citizen News Service (CNS) and is also a member of the communications advisory committee of Indian Government’s tuberculosis programme. He received the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General’s Award in 2008 in recognition of his writings on tobacco control. He is also a member of Microbicides Society of India and ICMR’s Microbicides Expert Group. He manages the Asia Pacific platform for online dialogue on HIV (SEA-AIDS) since 1996 and global Stop-TB eForum since 2001 onwards. He also coordinates the Health Writers Network (HWN) connecting health writers in Asian and African nations. He is a Fellow of National Press Foundation US, Advocacy Institute US, and HIV Vaccine 2012. He has written extensively in Hindi and English print and online media and other publications such as The Lancet, Asian Tribune, Asia Sentinel, The Nation (Thailand), Weekly Blitz, The Independent (Bangladesh), Tehelka, The Hindustan Times, Central Chronicle, Women’s Era, Femina, AP Times, The Pioneer, The New Indian Express, Deccan Chronicle, Deccan Herald, The Statesman (India), News Blaze, American Chronicle (US), Modern Ghana, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), The Monitor (Uganda), among others. He has co-authored books/ publications on tuberculosis patients’ perspective (UP state government award winning, Hindi), tobacco health hazards (UP state government award winning, Hindi), motherhood (Hindi), haemorrhoids or piles (English, Hindi), childhood pneumonia (Hindi, English, Urdu), childhood TB (English), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) and HIV report, TB, HIV and Malaria issues (English, French, Russian and Spanish), among others. His writings has got acknowledged by awards such as WHO Medal (Greece, 1996), Original Crystal Map Honour (Japan, 1998), Pundit PN Misra Young Literary Writer Award (2000), Rotary International’s Vocational Excellence Award (2006), News Blaze Writers’ Achievement Award (2010), among others.
Shiow Chin Tan is a health journalist working for The Star, the largest English daily in Malaysia. She was the second recipient of the IDRC-SciDev.Net Science Journalist Award, which allowed her to travel around South-East Asia for three months, exploring the condition of science communication in the region in early 2009. She was selected as a 2012 Alfred Friendly Press Fellow, and was a panel speaker at the World Forum Lille 2008 on the topic ‘Media & Sustainable Development: Should the Media Inform or Alarm the Public?’ Her working experience includes six years on the education desk, editing various science and maths pullouts for school students, and covering diverse science topics that range from genetically-engineered mosquitoes and rare diseases to massive stars and potable water.
Dina Bema – editor in chief of popular science magazine “Ilustrētā zinātne”* since 2010 (chief editor’s assistant since 2008). Five-year experience in writing and mostly editing various science articles in many fields – starting from dark matter in astronomy and ending with stem cell use in medicine. Almost every month she is gathering information from various institutes, universities and museums in Latvia and writing local science news section for “Illustrated Science”. Dina Bema is also writing science-based articles for weekly journal “Sestdiena”. She has participated as an author for various articles and editor of at least 10 separate completely locally made attachment issues for “Illustrated science” including: “Long life” (about aging), “Addictions”, “National parks in Latvia”, “Technologies in your house”, “What’s new in universe” etc.
Dina Bema is also working as a researcher with cancer stem cells in scientific institute “Experimental and clinical medicine institute” since 2007. After couple of years she is hoping to get doctors degree in biology. Masters degree in biology (University of Latvia) already gained in 2007. Dina Bema has also participated in several scientific conferences around the world to represent her laboratories research results.
* (Illustrated Science is using Bonnier Publications International A/S license)
