News story from the conference: Complex Islamic response to evolution emerges from study

T. V. Padma

Credit: WCSJ

29 June 2011 | EN

The Muslim world stands at a unique moment in its relation to evolutionary theory, according to the co-author of a major survey into attitudes towards evolution among Muslims around the world.

Acceptance of evolution varies widely across the Islamic world, demonstrating that stereotypical ideas about Islam and evolution are wrong, said Salman Hameed, director of the Centre for the Study of Science in Muslim Societies (SSiMS) at Hampshire College, United Sates.

But ideas are being moulded now, he said, because of new phenomena such as mass education, migration and access to the Internet.

Full news story here

Finland to host the next WCSJ

The host for the next WCSJ will be Finland, it was announced at the Doha meeting.

The organisers of Helsinki 2013 are promising a World Conference Science Journalism (WCSJ) like no other so far, with an emphasis on more interactive discussions, a multicultural perspective to issues and an even more diverse attendance by delegates.

Goodbye Doha, hello Helsinki. Credit: Flickr/magnusfranklin

Members of the Finnish Association of Science Editors and Journalists (FASEJ) said they will work to ensure the forum will not be a conference for North American and European science journalists, but a congregation where people from all parts of the world will attend, bringing with them different cultural, social and political backgrounds of the environment s in which they work.

“We want people attending to be from as diverse regions as possible and then we explore what we have in common so that we can all learn something new,” said Paivi Kapiainen-Heiskanen, an FASEJ board member.

The organisers say that Helsinki 2013 will inspire people to talk less science and concentrate more on science journalism, with emphasis on ethics, and the economic, political and social environments that journalists from various regions work in.

“We intend to have less time for speakers and give more time to delegates to talk, so as [to] make sessions more interactive,” said Raili Leino, another board member.

The major theme will be digital media, with topics on the place of science journalism in the era of new media, and how new ways of gathering, reporting and marketing have changed science reporting, said Ulla Jarvi, chair of the programme committee.

The group said that planning and organisation for the 24-28 June conference will begin immediately, and they hope to host more than 800 delegates from across the world.

Maina Waruru, SciDev.Net contributor in Kenya

How to bypass the media office

“We are not allowed to speak to the media.”

Journalists in many countries regularly have to deal with this response from scientists they are trying to talk to … and it can even prevent them producing their articles. Governments in some countries will go to great lengths to erect barriers and limit journalists’ access to scientists’ work.

Collect phone numbers so you can avoid the media office in the future. Credit: Pratchaya W.

Richard Stone, news editor of Science‘s Asia-Pacific office, said that journalists should keep on trying: “You must always look for alternative sources … Do not stop your work if the source does not speak. Just as there are sources who refuse to cooperate, there are others who are ready to do just that”.

But to succeed in this task you must build confidence with the source, said Stone. Avoid getting facts wrong in stories, which destroys the confidence of the scientist you have interviewed.

That’s all very well in some countries but, in Egypt, journalists are forbidden from building direct relationships with scientists – whether or not they demonstrate they can write accurate stories, said Mohamed Azam an Egyptian science journalist.

“The media office officials just say “tell us your questions and we will bring an answer from [the] researcher””.

As a science journalist in Egypt, I have had many experiences of media offices obstructing, rather than improving, my communication with scientists. To get round this, I attend as many conferences as possible and talk to scientists there to establish a direct relationship. And I collect their phone numbers so I can avoid the media office in the future.

But, to maintain this, I agree with Stone: avoid writing incorrect information that could embarrass the source.

Hazem Badr, SciDev.Net contributor in Egypt

Africans still love their radios

The obsession with the explosion of social media can obscure an important fact: radio remains a dominant source of information in Africa, according to Joseph Warungu, editor of the African News and Current Affairs at the BBC World Service.

The death of radio is not a homogenous development across the world, he told a workshop held at the conference.

In Africa, radio is still very much alive. Credit: Flickr/Internews Network

“In Africa, radio is still much alive. As the African urban elite are held in traffic jams — to and from work, every morning and every evening – it’s the radio that keeps them company and feeds them with news, information and entertainment,” he told the workshop, co-sponsored by SciDev.Net.

“Even my old grandmother in deep rural Kenya knows where to get the knob and tune the radio for her latest news and information needs.”

“Radio will remain a big force to reckon with in Africa, as it’s the most widely-used, it’s handy, reaches the widest audiences and is cheaper to use. Its not threatened by the other new internet-based  media growth,” he added.

Peter Wamboga-Mugirya, SciDev.Net contributor in Uganda

Reporting on climate change? Don’t lead on the ‘c’ word

Interest in pure climate change stories has waned. Credit: Flickr/PeacePlusOne

Although Chinese and US journalists face different challenges in reporting on climate change (see the post below) they also face a common problem: interest in pure climate science stories has waned.

Dan Fagin, professor of journalism at New York University, and Richard Stone, news editor for Science‘s Asia-Pacific office in Beijing, had a suggestion for journalists writing on climate change.

“Use climate as your peg as little as possible, look just for human impact,” said Fagin. And Stone agreed: “Relate your stories to people’s lives.”

Smriti Mallapaty, SciDev.Net contributor, Nepal/London

In China, everyone believes in climate change

China and the United States may have the burden of climate change in common, but when it comes to reporting the issue they are poles apart.

In both countries, it is hard to find climate change sceptics quoted in the mainstream media but, in the United States the question of belief in the phenomenon, is still important in public discussion and even in the selection of presidential candidates.

With the government investing heavily in clean technology projects, there's much to report on. Credit: Flickr/350.org

In contrast, these questions simply don’t arise in China, where the government has steamrolled a consensus on the science, according to Richard Stone, news editor for the magazine  Science’s Asia-Pacific office, in Beijing.

“The sceptics don’t have any traction in China,” he told the meeting.

Chinese journalists have also accepted the science and most of their stories are formulated around how to achieve climate change related goals. With the government investing heavily in clean technology projects, there’s much to report on.

In China, as in the United States, climate change is often packaged as a business or entrepreneurial story, sometimes without even mentioning the overused expression.

“But there is a shortage of stories that challenge the government,” says Stone, for example critiquing the government’s importing of timber or oil.

Smriti Mallapaty, SciDev.Net contributor, Nepal/London

Africa: poor but rich

Science can change Africa?

Informal settlements (commonly known as shacks) in South Africa do not only mirror poverty, or the government’s struggle to provide basic amenities for its people, they are also a sign of a potentially great resource – they are a recruiting ground for future scientists. This is the view of Barry Green, director of the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) based in South Africa.

Africa's main resource - its people - must be properly trained. Credit: Flickr/US Army Africa

Green said Africa has much potential. But it remains untapped as its main resource – its people – need to be properly trained to define their future.

In its efforts to change this, AIMS has been offering post-graduate study to Africans in mathematical sciences. It is also expanding its learning institutions across the continent.

Science is a formidable force that can improve the fortunes of Africa but it needs to be pursued with relevant policies and support, Ochieng Ogodo, SciDev.Net news editor for Sub-Saharan Africa, told the session.

In terms of innovation Africa is not putting new products on the market. Climate change is already wreaking havoc on the continent and water access was a huge problem.

Ogodo said the solution lay in African home grown science solutions. But, long and hard as the road to scientific emancipation might seem in Africa, the key message from the session was that locally credible research and appropriate policies were critical to turn fortunes of a rich but poor continent.

Munyaradzi Makoni, SciDev.Net contributor in South Africa

News story from the conference: Ethics left behind in race for drug trials in the South

Paula Leighton

Credit: WCSJ

28 June 2011 | EN

The number of clinical trials in developing countries has surged in recent years but the legal and ethical frameworks to make them fair are often not in place, the 7th World Conference of Science Journalists, in Qatar (27–29 June), heard today.

By 2008, for example, there were three times as many developing countries participating in clinical trials registered with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) than there were in the entire period between 1948 and 2000, with many ‘transitional’ countries, such as Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa, taking part.

For the pharmaceutical industry, the attractions are the lower costs and the availability of ‘treatment-naive’ patients, who are much less likely to have been previously exposed to drugs or trials.

Full news story here

Why science journalists should blog

Bothina Osama
Middle East & North Africa regional news editor, SciDev.Net

---

“What a waste of time to have a blog and write unpaid work on it,” is a thought that might cross a lot of science journalists’ minds when they consider whether or not to start a blog – I was one of them.

The stars of science blogging. Credit: Bothina Osama

But at a session this afternoon, the stars of science blogging raised the point that having a blog can help develop the quality of journalists’ writing.

And, they assured the audience, some journalists actually earn a living by blogging. “It is really generative,” one of the panelists said. For example, Jennifer Ouellette, a panelist and author of the Cocktail Party Physics blog, compiled her blog posts into a book.

“Having a blog is equal to going to a journalism school.” This is how Moheb Costandi, moderator of the session and author of the Neurophilosophy blog, described the benefits of having a blog. Ouellette said she thinks of her blog as her “writing lab”. And all of the panelists agreed that having a blog is a wonderful way for journalists to develop their writing style.

Their advice for journalists who want to start their own blog?

Blog about something that you know about and are passionate about; make the topic of your blog narrow enough so that people don’t get bored; and interact with readers who leave comments, as they build the blogging community.

The tensions between science and society

While these are the best of scientific times, they are also the worst, with tensions rising between science and society, Alan Leshner, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said in his keynote address today.

Concerns about the treatment of human and animal subjects add to science's bad PR. Credit: Flickr/alstreet

Some of these tensions come from problems within science, he said. A tiny number of  incidents of scientific misconduct, accidental scientific errors, and the failure of medical researchers to declare they were funded by drug companies, can have a “terrible” effect on the public’s view of science. Concerns about treatment of human and animal subjects, as well as publishing by press release, add to the bad PR.

Other troubles arise when science collides with core values held by society.

Embryonic stem cell research (whose moral legitimacy depends on when you think life begins – not a scientific question), research into personal topics such as sex (which came near to being banned by the US Congress as a suitable topic for study by the National Institutes of Health), are two examples.

Another which, Leshner predicted, will at some point take the world by storm, is synthetic biology. He predicts a public crisis “when they figure out that we will be able to scientifically produce life”.

A further example is neuroscience and its potential to challenge ideas about the soul.

All inflammatory issues. But are they so very different from the time when scientists were challenging the core belief of Christians that God had put his favourite planet at the centre of the universe?

Joel D. Adriano, SciDev.Net contributor in the Philippines, and Aisling Irwin, News and features editor, SciDev.Net