The old image of bloggers as being amateur writers is vanishing, largely due to the rise of professional blog networks with their emphasis on standards. In no area is this more evident than in science writing, where bloggers are now respected as some of the best science communicators in the world. What drove this change, who is responsible for changing the conversation, and where will blogging networks take us next. This plenary brings together some of the best know blog editors and bloggers in the profession.
Producer:
Deborah Blum is chemistry blogger for the Wired Science Blog network, a book author and freelance science writer, and a professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a former board member of the World Federation of Science Journalists and currently serves as vice president of the Council for Advancement of Science Writing (USA).
Moderator:
Lynne Smit is a veteran journalist specialising in science, as well as an author, communications strategist and social media expert. She is a mentor in the World Federation of Science Journalists’ SjCOOP programme which mentors science journalists in Anglophone, Francophone and Arabophone Africa and Secretary and founding member of the South African Science Journalists’ Association. She has 32 years’ experience as a journalist, mostly in the science and development arenas, working for a range of South African newspapers as well as The Financial Times, Guardian and Independent in London. She is a social media trainer for various organisations as well as individual authors, artists, scientists and journalists. One of her latest articals on digital tools for journalists appeared on SciDev.Net http://bit.ly/T00QZp.
Panelists:
Alok Jha is a science correspondent at the Guardian newspaper. As well as writing news and comment, he presents the Science Weekly podcast and is the author of two popular science books. He also regularly presents science programmes on BBC TV and radio.
Betsy Mason is science editor for Wired.com, She has written about science for publications including Nature, Science, Discover and New Scientist. Before becoming a journalist, Betsy was a geologist, and has a Master’s degree in geology from Stanford University.
Ed Yong is an award-winning science writer. His blog Not Exactly Rocket Science is hosted by National Geographic, and his work has also appeared in Nature, the BBC, New Scientist, Wired, the Guardian, and more. He lives in London with his wife.
Bora Zivkovic was born in the former Yugoslovia; he moved to the USA in 1991 and did his graduate work at North Carolina State University on circadian rhythms. He is blogs editor at Scientific American, where he manages a network of almost 60 science bloggers. He is also a co-founded and director of ScienceOnline.com and series of editor of the annual anthology, Best Science Writing Online.
