5th World Conference of Science Journalists

 Reporting science in emerging economies [82:38m]: Download

PRODUCER: Julie Clayton

CHAIR: Alison Leigh

SPEAKERS: Tata Padma, Jia Hepeng, Nalaka Gunawardene, Christina Scott, Talet Ng’andwe, Luisa Massarani

SESSION REPORT: Emerging economies face different challenges

by: Aleem Ahmed

Lack of capable science journalists, communication gap between media and scientists, restrictions on reporting against the “official” opinion of the state, lesser-qualified public relations officers at S&T organizations, enormity of imported themes having little or no relevance with the society, non-existence of science-dedicated news services at local level, reluctance in media to report science, and the dearth of government interest to disseminate the scientific knowledge among the masses were the most common problems that science journalists from developing countries highlighted in this session.

Emphasizing the need for local-language science journalism, Christina Scott from South Africa revealed that there are 11 popular science magazines in her country. Among them, only one – having the smallest circulation – is in English, while the others are published in local languages.

Luisa Massarani from Brazil, who also coordinates SciDev.Net in Latin America, pointed to a huge communication gap between science journalists and scientists/ PR officials in the region: if a journalist contacts them to have their opinion regarding some S&T-related issues, generally they don’t respond. She also complained about the lack of and quality of public relations officers at R&D institutions and universities. For her, a small number of news agencies (like EurekAlert, AlphaGalileo and press.nature.com) are yet another problem that a Latin American science journalist has to face.

Voicing similar concerns, Talent Ng’andwe, a science journalist associated with SciDev.Net from Zambia, said the media in his country is free to report anything, except the opinions challenging the official viewpoint of the government – irrespective of their scientific and technical credibility. Additionally, Zambian newspapers consider political news items as the only qualifiers for the front page. And, if published, S&T-related reports find the least prominent place at the inner pages of these newspapers.

But for Nalaka Gunawardene, CEO, TVE Asia Pacific, Sri Lanka, the “immature demand for science” is an important obstacle in his country. For him, government’s unwillingness to enhance public understanding of science, arrogant attitude of concerned officials towards science reporting (using the brutal logic of with-us-or-without-us), and the sacredness of expensive ‘charismatic mega-science’ projects are the core problems that Sri Lankan science journalists are still to overcome. In other words, the lethal combination of nationalism and charismatic mega-science paralyses the real investigative science journalism in Sri Lanka. But, in the face of all these difficulties, “science (journalism) happens,” he said.

Despite making news in recent years, the overall picture of science journalism in India “isn’t completely rosy,” said Tata Padma, SciDev.Net’s South Asia coordinator from India. She noted that the science reporting in Indian media accounts for merely 3 percent of the overall coverage – heading to decrease further. Though the coverage of some scientific issues is increasing and a few investigative reports on science are getting published, the circumstances for science journalism aren’t as favorable as presented before the world. For example, there is no science-dedicated TV channel from India; most of the old Indian magazines of science are now closed while the officials are, generally, of the opinion that no one needs to know science. Like other developing countries, PR officers usually avoid media and there is no organized news service for science in India. More enthusiastic science journalists are needed to change this scenario, but the circumstances discourage new people to report science in the media.

For Jia Hepeng, regional coordinator of SciDev.Net in China, his country is facing a dilemma: China has greatly increased the spending on R&D in science and technology during recent years, yet has paid very little attention to the public communication of science – portraying a scenario almost identical to the other developing countries. But, additionally, Hepeng also suggested that science journalists might help improve the quality of science reporting in local media – by providing them with detailed coverage. He also stressed non English-speaking science journalists to improve their English-language skills, so that they can have a better international recognition.

During the discussion, various journalists from the other developing countries shared similar experiences and criticized their respective governments regarding the neglect of science journalism. Besides this, Nalaka Gunawardene observed a disparity or “non-equity” between science journalists from North and South. That is, an equally competent and capable science journalist of the developing world can only become an assistant for the (documentary-making) projects undertaken by the organizations from the developed nations. Answering a question from the audience, Christina Scott termed science magazines of the developing countries as “extremophiles” because they manage to survive in the most hostile conditions of their societies.

Finally, this plenary session ended with more voices of concern – rather than discussing the realistic, on the ground and practical strategies for the survival of science journalism in developing countries. Hopefully, during the next World Conference of Science Journalists, the WFSJ shall devote a session to discuss the survival strategies for the science journalism in the developing countries.

 Climate change and the spread of disease [88:08m]: Download

PRODUCER/CHAIR: Deborah Smith

SPEAKERS: Tony McMichael, Alistair Woodward

SESSION REPORT: Climate change has far-reaching ramifications

by Piyaporn Wongruang

Former U.S. vice president Al Gore climbed over an elevator in one of the scenes featured in his recent Oscar Award documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth” to demonstrate how high the carbon dioxide greenhouse gas would rise in the sky, if the current emission course remained unchanged.

The elevator lifted him up to about three stories.

“An Inconvenient Truth” generated unprecedented discussion about climate issues worldwide. But some scientific reports about the subject are still very difficult to promote.

While people worldwide have been awed by the scenes of fierce storms, and such, the impact of climate change on people’s health apparently still lies in scientific reports, which are still in the hands of the scientists.

Dr. Tony McMichael, review editor for the Human Health chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s working group II said, the climate change focus is still very much on political and economic aspects.

“But we also know that public health is at risk,” he said.

An example of this was the heat waves in Europe during 2003, when death tolls increased to 900 when the temperature rose above the normal average daily temperature by about 12 degree Celsius.

Secondary impacts on people’s health, include increased injuries from extreme events, and the rise of infectious diseases and malnutrition, especially among the world’s
poor, Dr McMichael added.

Dr. Neville Nicholls, a lead author about climate change, said although reports could establish initial relationships between climate change and public
health, more knowledge is needed to help people better address these impacts and come up with adaptation measures.

He said people could start to act now. Take the case of Australia, which has attempted to mitigate impacts of heat-waves, which could become problematic to its senior citizens.

“We already know that people died because of them, and even though it may have not been from climate change, it’s still good to develop adaptation measures,” said Dr Nicholls, adding that adaptation could go in hand with mitigation.

Dr. Mongkol Na Songkla, Thailand’s Public Health Minister, said Thailand monitors the changing trends of some tropical diseases as a pro-active measure against climate change.

Recently, the ministry detected a surge in Malaria in the western part of the country, although its relation has not yet been linked to the change in weather patterns.

Apart from tropical diseases, Thais have also been encountering hotter and wetter weather, he said.

“The most significant thing for us to do is to equip our
people with adequate knowledge about climate change so that they can adapt themselves to the changing climate. Apart from this, our ministry will try to closely watch changes in disease trends, which may be related to the changing weather,” said Dr. Mongkol.

Health benefits will also help compensate the cost of mitigating climate change in the future.

Global concentration of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased markedly as a result of human activity since 1750, and now far exceed pre-industrial values.

The increase of carbon dioxide is due primarily to fossil fuel use and land use change, while that of methane is primarily due to agriculture.

These have caused the total global temperature to increase up to 0.76 Celcius.

Eastern parts of North and South American northern Europe and northern and central Asia during 1900 to 2005 observed increased precipitation, while the Sahel, the Mediterranean, southern Africa, and parts of southern Asia observed drying condition.

More intense and longer droughts have been observed over wider areas since 1970s, particularly in the tropics and subtropics.

Both past and future human carbon dioxide emissions will continue to contribute to warming and sea level rise for more than a millennium.