Science and the Media Project

The Science and the Media Project is designed to create more opportunities for engagement and exchange between scientific institutions, non-science media and the public. It also explores the role of scientists as civic actors and collaborators helping to solve civic problems.

Below are materials from two successful initiatives the Project conducted with the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. This article summarizes the purpose and findings of the project.

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

SMITHSONIAN ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH CENTER

Blog Posts

Flint Offers a New Model for Accountability

A couple of weeks ago, the task force Michigan governor Rick Snyder appointed to investigate Flint’s now infamous water crisis issued its long-awaited report. The findings detailed failures in multiple government agencies to address high levels of lead, a neurotoxin, in the city’s water. To cut costs, in the spring of 2014 Flint’s state-appointed emergency […]

How to Turn Science into Great Investigative Journalism

Many science writers are curious about investigative journalism, but unsure how to proceed. At the recent Professional Development Day of the DC Science Writers Association, the largest regional gathering of science writers in the country, a panel of award-winning journalists and investigators discussed how to identify, pitch and develop science-themed investigations for general audiences. Read […]

South Bronx Mom Who Collects Data on Policing is Invited to the White House

Earlier this fall, I was invited to attend an extraordinary meeting at the White House. “Open Science and Innovation: Of the People, By the People, For the People” was the coming together of an effort that has been percolating in the federal government for the past couple of years, to engage more citizens in creating […]

Combating Seafood Fraud Requires Interdisciplinary Approaches

One of the things we do at the Investigative Reporting Workshop is explore how different academic disciplines can enrich and inform investigative journalism. A talk this week on seafood fraud sponsored by AU’s interdisciplinary ECOllaborative provides a case in point. Read more at investigativereportingworkshop.org

What Pluto Tells Us About Journalism (featured at investigativereportingworkshop.org

When NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft sent back its first crisp images of Pluto last week, the culmination of a 3-billion mile, 9 1/2-year journey filled with cliffhangers and near disasters, you didn’t need to be a scientist to feel the exhilaration of discovering what was, until then, a dark and blurry corner of the solar […]

The Art and Science of Failure (featured on Longreads.com)

Failure is interesting. It comes in endless variations: professional, personal, comical, stupid, lazy, unexpected – to name just a few. You can also mix and match. Though many abhor its bitter taste, in moderate doses failure can be a bracing tonic. It also makes a good story. Read more at Longreads.com

Science, Meet Journalism. You Two Should Talk

When I began my term as a public policy scholar at the Wilson Center last year working on the project “Science and the Media,” I ran into a journalist colleague I hadn’t seen in years. When he heard what I was doing, he said in astonishment, “Science? How did you get interested in that?” He […]

Science and the Media and Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Co-Host Program on Marine Invaders

With Scientists, Chefs, and Canoes, Journalists Explore Marine Invaders

Over 30 journalists and journalism school faculty paddled in canoes, learned new audience engagement strategies, chatted with chefs and seafood distributors and tasted gourmet cooking as part of a novel pilot program to give journalists in all fields enjoyable and productive access to the sciences while learning new journalism skills.

Data Journalism Helps Make Sense of a World Awash in Information

Washington, D.C. July 30 –The explosion of data-sharing has created new opportunities for journalists to harness this information and create a more engaged and informed audience At a Science and the Media and Wilson Center Commons Lab panel on Wednesday, July 30 entitled “Data Journalism and Policymaking: A Changing Landscape “ speakers explored the emerging […]

What is Data Journalism, How is it Changing Newsrooms, and What’s This Got to do with Science?

What is data journalism? Why does it matter? How has the maturing field of data science changed the direction of journalism and global investigative reporting? What does data journalism have in common with citizen science? For answers to these questions, come to the July 30 panel co-organized by Science and the Media and the Commons […]

Science and the Media and the American Museum of Natural History Co-Host Pilot Program on Glowing

The Science and the Media project is testing a variety of innovative approaches to enable all journalists to engage the sciences in enjoyable ways while learning more about the journalism craft. On June 18, Science and the Media and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, one of the largest natural history museums […]

Canoe with Smithsonian scientists

Taste environmental solutions

Science and the Media and the American Museum of Natural History Co-Host Pilot Program on Glowing

Citizen Science Lets Audiences Take Part in Reporting

Technological advances and new digital mapping tools now enable ordinary citizens to actively participate in collecting and interpreting data, a development that presents new opportunities for journalists and media organizations. That was the message of an April 12, 2014 panel that Science and the Media organized at the D.C. Science Writers’ Association 2014 Professional Development […]

How Does the Media – and Public – Learn Environmental Science? Help Us Find Out

The Wilson Center // On the Beat // Louise Lief. Years ago, when I was a diplomatic correspondent at a large national magazine, if I encountered what I thought of as “science stuff,” I sent it to the science desk. I was busy covering foreign policy, wars, and ethnic and religious conflicts – not science.