- About the Lecture
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About the Lecture
Susan Hockfield states that science journalism “is now, and in the decades ahead, absolutely indispensable.” As we confront global warming and health pandemics, science reporting must be sustained, Hockfield says, “in its rightful place, at the top of the profession and in the thick of the national conversation.” But dismal economic times throw doubt on this aspiration, as these journalists attest.
At the nation’s flagship newspaper, The New York Times, there’s a relentless commitment to high-quality journalism, whether print or digital, Jill Abramson maintains. “The fact that people have come to expect news on the web to be free has certainly challenged journalism’s business model,” she acknowledges, but The Times is better positioned than other publications to weather the changes. Indeed, “decades from now, the quality newspapers left may not be on paper, but journalism will continue to thrive,” Abramson asserts. In particular, this means ramping up science coverage, whether examining climate science or common medical treatments and health policy.
Abramson draws a clear distinction between science blogs, which are “often for the deeply engaged,” and “coverage pitched to the intelligent general reader.” Penetrating reporting with great breadth comes at a steep price: the paper must support reporters who dig deep into protected government files, are on perilous assignments, or must take a year to glean all dimensions of a complex story. She asks, “How do we prevent the collective muscle of investigative journalism from being gutted?” Whatever the answer (and one solution may involve nonprofit funding), Abramson sees a robust, continuing appetite for “trustworthy information on the world we live in.”
Cristine Russell sees a “best of times, worst of times” scenario for science journalism, with a glut of opportunities beyond print to chat and blog about science, or more frequently, health and fitness, and deep cutbacks in print science departments. Andrew Revkin admits the days when The Times could bring in $1 billion a year in ad revenue are gone forever, and hopes its staff “won’t be in a museum of recently extinct journalists.” But holes in science coverage mean “scientists have a greater responsibility to take the bull by the horns…and engage more fully in a conversation with society.” Ivan Oransky characterizes some online science sites as a kind of “curation,” with “a lot of people covering single events periodically.” He cites Twitter as a positive example of “democratizing coverage,” getting a new generation “to get back into science.” Evan Hadingham suggests we might be “in a golden age of popular science communication on TV.” Yet, in a 500-channel world, public TV science producers face “the ghettoization of science,” worried about how to mix serious science with entertainment.Related Videos
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- About the Speakers
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About the Speakers
Jill Abramson
Managing Editor, The New York Times
Jill Abramson was appointed managing editor in 2003 after serving as Washington bureau chief. She joined the newspaper in 1997. Previously, she was an editor and investigative reporter at The Wall Street Journal. She is a graduate of Harvard College and co-author of two books: Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas and Where They Are Now.
Philip Hilts
Director, Knight Science Journalism Fellowships, MIT
Philip J. Hilts, the author of six books, has been a prize-winning health and science reporter for both The New York Times and The Washington Post. Over 20 years, he placed more than 300 stories on the front pages of those papers. His stories have included a report back from one mile below the Pacific Ocean surface in an active volcano, the confessions of a healer in Zambia who was "curing" AIDS, and articles on hypnosis-induced court testimony that resulted in four men being freed from jail.
His most recent book is RX for Survival: Why We Must Rise to the Global Health Challenge (Penguin, 2005). His previous book, Protecting America's Health: The FDA, Business and 100 Years of Regulation was winner of the 2004 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology, as well as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His book Scientific Temperaments was a finalist for the National Book Award. Smokescreen: The Truth Behind the Tobacco Industry Cover-up was selected as one of the ten best books of the year by Business Week Magazine.Cristine Russell
Senior Fellow, Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Cristine Russell is an award-winning freelance journalist who has written about science, health and the environment for more than three decades. She was a former national science reporter for The Washington Post and The Washington Star and is the current President of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, a group of distinguished journalists and scientists dedicated to improving science news coverage for the general public. Russell is also a past president of the National Association of Science Writers and a contributor to A Field Guide for Science Writers (2006). She serves on the boards of the USC Annenberg School for Communication, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Commonwealth Fund and Mills College. She is an honorary member of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, and has a biology degree from Mills College. She was a Spring 2006 Fellow at the KSG Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. Her research focuses on the future of science writing and how to improve news media coverage of controversial scientific issues, from climate change to avian flu. She is organizing workshops for reporters and scientists and planning a book on current controversies in science, health and the environment.
Andrew Revkin
Reporter and blogger, The New York Times
Andrew Revkin has reported on the environment for The New York Times since 1995, covering subjects that have included Hurricane Katrina, climate change, the Asian tsunami, science policy and politics, and the North Pole. His job took him to the Arctic three times in three years, and he was the first Times reporter to file stories and photos from the sea ice around the Pole. He also has worked as a senior editor of Discover, a Los Angeles Times staff writer, and a senior writer at Science Digest. Revkin has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Brown University and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, and has served as adjunct professor at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, teaching environmental reporting. He is the author of several books, including The Burning Season: The Murder of Chico Mendes and the Fight for the Amazon Rain Forest, Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast, and The North Pole Was Here: Puzzles and Perils at the Top of the World. His blog, Dot Earth, concerns “efforts to balance human affairs with the planet’s limits.”
Ivan Oransky
Managing Editor, Online, Scientific American
Ivan Oransky previously served as deputy editor of
Oransky is the author or co-author of four books, including The Common Symptom Answer Guide (McGraw-Hill, 2004), and has written for numerous publications. He received his B.A. at Harvard and his M.D. from NYU, and completed an internship at Yale. He has served on the board of directors of the Association of Health Care Journalists since 2002. Oransky also holds an appointment at NYU Medical School as Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, and teaches at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism.Evan Hadingham
Senior Science Editor, NOVA
- About the Host
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About the Host
MIT Museum
Cutting-edge technologies, amazing holograms, and the beauty of Harold Edgerton's strobe photography entertain, educate, and enlighten at the MIT Museum. Robotics, underwater exploration, kinetic sculptures, and the variety of interactive programs and historic collections attract visitors and researchers from around the world. This unique museum recently opened the Mark Epstein Innovation Gallery featuring some of the latest work of selected research groups at MIT.
Video Player
The Future of Science Journalism
- Jill Abramson
Philip Hilts
Cristine Russell
Andrew Revkin
Ivan Oransky
Evan Hadingham - April 28, 2009
- Running Time: 1:41:56
