Science Journalism Panels at AAAS on Friday

I’m back in the office after a great event last night at the American Museum of Natural History. Close to 100 attendees came out to the magnificent venue for a panel discussion on media coverage of climate change. Not surprisingly, a majority of the attendees were journalists, journalism students, bloggers, or university and NGO-types working on climate change communication.

Last night’s themes will be followed up on in two panels at the annual AAAS meetings in Chicago. At CJR’s The Observatory, Curtis Brainard has the details:

Two other events will take place Friday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago. Cristine Russell, the president of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and a CJR contributing editor, will moderate a symposium titled “Hot and Hotter: Media Coverage of Climate-Change Impacts, Policies, and Politics.” Speakers will include the Yale Forum’s Ward, Christian Science Monitor reporter Peter Spotts, BBC correspondent Pallab Ghosh, White House science advisor nominee John Holdren, and Stanford University climatologist Stephen Schneider. The event begins at 10:30 a.m.

At 4 p.m. that afternoon, Pulitzer prize-winning science journalist Deborah Blum will moderate a press briefing organized by the World Conference of Science Journalists (which will hold its meeting in London in June). Responding to CNN’s elimination of its entire science and technology team and similar newsrooms cuts around the world, speakers will weigh in on whether or not science journalism is in a state “crisis.” Panelists include Russell and Ghosh from the earlier event, as well as Arab Science Journalists Association president Nadia El-Awady (whom I interviewed for CJR last year) and Wall Street Journal reporter Robert Lee Hotz.