| 18 April 2007 | ||
| 3:30 pm |
PRODUCER: Tom Noble
CHAIR: Peter Calamai
SPEAKERS: Deborah Smith, Garry Linnell, Peter Fray
SESSION REPORT: Science does sell
By Laura Garcia Oviedo
Convincing media editors to give more space to science stories is difficult but not impossible. That was the main idea expressed during this session.
Debora Smith, who works at the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, said science writers must use many strategies to be sure that their science story gets into the newspapaper.
“You have to sell it well, and make it as simple and interesting as possible to common people without trivialazing the story”, said Smith.
And she added: “Journalists try every time to get to the page one. Some stories are so interesting that they cross the line and reach the page one without problems, but other stories don’t”.
A good strategy to convince editors that a story deserves a space, said Smith, is getting good photographs, and graphics.
Mariko Takahashi, science news editor of the Asahi Shimbun Japanese newspaper, pointed out that are basic elements in a newspaper story. For example, it must include a date, it must have a big influence on society, it must surprise people, it must be interesting and it must be easy to understand.
But science stories present some problems, said Takahashi. It is difficult to find an exact date of a scientific discovery. Although some news is sometimes surprising to scientists is not always surprising to people. And headlines don’t always contribute to a good understanding of the story.
To avoid these problems he advised: to use the date when a paper is published or a speech is delivered, to point out the impact on society and to implement a writing style that gives surprise to readers.
Toronto Star journalist, Peter Calamai, chaired this session. He concluded: “If editors are good journalists, and they have the same values as you as a journalist, they are going to be able to recognize a good story”.
0 Responses to “Seducing gatekeepers: getting more science past your editor”