The next science media centre (SMC) is being planned for the USA. Centres can now be found around the world: Canada, Japan, Denmark, New Zealand and Australia with others in the planning stage. The oldest one in the UK celebrated its tenth birthday last autumn. As the international network of these centres spreads so does their influence. They essentially were set up to help communicate science and to address the ‘ills’ of science journalism as well as to deal with the major failing of science reporting. Their impact has been considerable. Time-pressed science journalists no longer go into the field and dig for stories. They go to pre-arranged briefing at SMCs where the agenda is set by the SMCs. They are independent, non-profit services for the news media, giving journalists direct access to evidence-based science, often featuring science generated in the home country and published internationally. But have they instead become formidable PR agencies for science making it more difficult for science journalists to investigate science and keep scientists accountable? Is science reporting improved as a result of mediation by the SMC’s and how is quality science journalism evaluated? Who wins and who loses with this model of science news delivery and is there an optimum method of structuring the SMC’s that will serve equally the needs of science communication while guarding the integrity of journalism?
Producers: Kathryn O’Hara and Connie St Louis
Moderator: Kathryn O’Hara, CTV Chair in Science Broadcast Journalism, Carleton School of Journalism and Communication, Canada
Speakers:
Susannah Eliott, Director Australian Science Media Center
Connie St Louis, President British Science Writers’ Association
Martin Schneider, TV Science Programme Director SWR & Chairman of the German Science Journalists’ Association WPK, Baden-Baden
Leigh Dayton, Former science journalist for the Australian newspaper
Kathryn O’Hara is an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University where she holds the School’s CTV Chair in Science Broadcast Journalism. Kathryn’s journalism experience includes over twenty-five years work in radio and television as a host, reporter, producer and researcher mainly in public broadcasting. Kathryn has a MSc. in Science Communication from The Queen’s University of Belfast and Dublin City University. She has served on numerous advisory boards including the National Cancer Institute of Canada’s Prevention Research Initiative, the Council of Canadian Academies’ Expert Panel on Research Integrity and the Editorial Advisory Board for the Science Media Centre of Canada. She is the former president of the Canadian Science Writers’ Association and was elected to the executive board of the World Federation of Science Journalists in 2012.
Connie St Louis <http://www.conniestlouis.com, @stlouisc, UK> is director of City University London’s Science Journalism MA, and an award-winning freelance broadcaster, journalist, writer and scientist. She presents and produces a range of programmes for BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service. She writes for numerous outlets including the Independent, the Daily Mail, the Guardian, the Sunday Times, BBC On Air magazine and BBC Online. She worked for the BBC for sixteen years. Her production highlights during that time include securing Bill Gates’ first British interview and being invited to produce the 1997 Reith Lectures written by Professor Patricia J Williams.
Martin Schneider, born in 1960, studied Philosophy, Biology and German Literature in Aachen, Vienna/Austria an Muenster. After working for two years in the press department of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council) he worked as a freelance science writer and TV producer for several newspapers, magazines and broadcast companies in Germany. Since 1999 staff member in the Science Dept. of SWR Television (Suedwestrundfunk, member of Public German Network ARD). In charge of three magazine programmes and science documentaries. Since 2009 Board Member, since 2011 Chairman of German Science Journalists’ Association WPK.
Susannah Eliott, Director Australian Science Media Center. Susannah is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Science Media Centre, an independent not for profit organisation that works with the news media to inject more evidence-based science into public discourse. She has a PhD in cell and developmental biology from Macquarie University, a Graduate Diploma in Journalism from the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and more than 20 years of practical experience in science communication with the science-media nexus as her primary focus. Prior to establishing the AusSMC, she spent close to six years in Stockholm, Sweden, as director of communications for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), an international network of scientists studying global environmental change. In the 1990s Susannah managed the Centre for Science Communication at UTS, where she helped establish the successful Horizons of Science series of media roundtables and was involved in numerous other initiatives such as Science in the Pub and Science in the Bush. She chaired the Expert Working Group on Science and the Media for the Federal Government as part of the “Inspiring Australia” initiative (2010-2011) and sits on several advisory boards and panels.
Leigh Dayton is an award-winning writer and broadcaster, specialising in the impact of science, technology, environment and medicine on news and current events. Until September 2012 Leigh was the Science Writer for The Australian newspaper, as well as the editor of the paper’s Weekend Health section. She now works on a freelance basis for scientific and media organisations and contributes regularly to ABC radio. Leigh is a PhD Candidate at Macquarie University’s Research Centre for Agency, Values & Ethics where she is exploring the pathways to biomedical innovation.
