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ScienceWritersTM National Association of Science Writers, Inc. Summer 2011 STUDY REVEALS DECLINE IN LOCAL REPORTING IMAGES AND HIGHLIGHTS FROM WCSJ2011 DATELINE TOKYO: TREVETT FUND POST DISASTER FOR THE REPORTING FUTURE ESTABLISHED THE REALITY OF HOME OFFICE TAX DEDUCTIONS ScienceWritersTM EST. 1952 Summer 2011 n Vol. 60, No. 3 From The Editor Editor In June, at the World Conference of Science Lynne Friedmann Journalists, I spent time with Motoko Editorial Board Kakubayashi of the Science Media Center of Robert Lee Hotz Paul Raeburn Japan. We first met in November 2010, in Deborah Blum Asia. She remarked that Doha was the third Proofreader time we had seen one another; each time in a Judith Schwartz different country (Japan, the United States, Design and Qatar). This says as much about the inter- Carol Kerr Graphic Design national nature of science writing today as it www.carolkerr.com does about our respective wanderlust. Advertising In addition to preliminary coverage of the Tinsley Davis Doha meeting* (pages 1, 22-23), this issue 510-647-9500 [email protected] offers insight by Joe Palca on NPR’s decision to dispatch reporters and producers to Tokyo in NASW Policy Nancy Shute the wake of Japan’s natural disasters and the [email protected] ongoing Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis Editorial Submissions (pages 2-3). NEWS Lynne Friedmann Closer to home, learn more about how P.O. Box 1725 18 AP Style Changes Solana Beach, CA 92075 the Canadian Science Writers Association is [email protected] bringing pressure to bear to change current gov- 19 Lindau Meeting Fellows ernment policies that bar Canadian scientists Deadlines 19 Laura van Dam Travel Fellows Next Issue: Fall ......... September 1, 2011 from granting interviews about taxpayer- Winter ......................... December 1, 2011 supported research (page 15). 21 Don’t Miss NASW-jobs List Spring ................................ March 1, 2012 Summer ...............................June 1, 2012 Where in the world will science writing 21 Public Policy Email Report take you? n On The Cover 19 In Memoriam Snowy Owl and Computer Mouse © *The fall issue of ScienceWriters will be devoted Ingram Publishing/SuperStock to full coverage of WCSJ2011. 24 New Members 24 NASW Contacts COLUMNS 8 Scholarly Pursuits 10 Books By and For Members EST. 1934 P.O. Box 7905 12 President’s Letter Berkeley, CA 94707 Phone 510-647-9500 13 Cyberbeat www.nasw.org Lynne Friedmann 13 Dispatches from the Director Executive Director Tinsley Davis 14 News from Afar [email protected] 16 Our Gang President Nancy Shute 17 Regional Groups COURTESY OF LYNNE FRIEDMANN Freelance oto In This Issue In This 20 The PIO Forum G PH Vice President fla Peggy Girshman ; P Kaiser Health News L FEATURES oto Treasurer PH Ron Winslow Wall Street Journal 1 Doha Meeting Highlights tock S I Secretary Beryl Lieff Benderly 2 NPR Reports on Japan Disasters © 2011 © 2011 Freelance A H 4 O Assessing the Space Shuttle Program ; D Copyright © 2011 National Association of Science Writers, Inc. ues 5 Federal Study Discovers Local Reporting Has Waned Q The articles and columns published in ac ScienceWriters express the opinions of the J authors and do not necessarily reflect the en positions of the institutions they represent 6 Barbara K. Trevett Fund for the Future Established nor of NASW. No portion of ScienceWriters may be reproduced in whole or in part without specific permission of the individ- 6 Scientific American Wins ASME Award ual authors or permission of the copyright owners. Contact the editor for more information. 7 Home-Office Tax Deductions The Council for the Advancement of Science Writing provides financial support to NASW 22 First Photos from WCSJ2011 for the production of ScienceWriters. FRIEDMANN COURTESY OF K ScienceWriters is printed in the U.S.A. on recycled paper. Doha Meeting Highlights Editor’s Note: The World Conference of Science Journalists (WCSJ2011), in Doha, Qatar, was concluding as ScienceWriters was going to press. Some highlights follow. A full conference recap will appear in the fall SW issue. The first WCSJ to be held in an Arab country attracted more than Asking the very nice tour guide at Al Jazeera “Just who’s paying 720 delegates from 90 countries. for the network‘s news coverage?” (Answer: The Emir) Fifty percent of participants were from the developing world. SUV dune-bashing on a tour of the desert; a thrill ride worthy of a Disneyland e-ticket. Delegate diversity: Africa (21 percent); Arab countries (20 percent); Australasia (11 percent); Canada (5 percent), Europe (27 percent); Evenings spent wandering through the maze-like Souq Waqif Latin America (4 percent); and the U.S. (12 percent). where resin, cardamom, and saffron perfume the air. A program of 180 speakers from around the world with added Discovering lemon-mint drink, a refreshing Arab version of sessions to suit the exciting revolutionary times in the Arab world. lemonade with a fabulous chlorophyll green hue. Conference travel support to about 100 Swimming in the bathtub-warm green speakers and more than 200 participants, waters of the Persian Gulf. including participants in a WFSJ program Select Links that mentors and trains journalists from to Doha Coverage Eight delegates ate camel at a Moroccan Africa and the Middle East. restaurant; 20 delegates rode camels during WFSJ2011 session recaps a desert field trip. Dramatic moments during the session http://www.wcsj2011.org/news about the Arab Spring and the future of Feeding carrots to the world’s most beau- science journalism in the region. None in Session videos on YouTube tiful Arabian horses, during a field trip http://bit.ly/pYKNkl the audience will forget hearing Arab to the Al Shaqab equestrian breeding science writers describe how they risked SciDev.Net blog program. arrest by writing about the uprisings and http://bit.ly/pXA4lH risked their lives by being personally Announcement that the Finnish Assn. of drawn into the conflict. “Arab Spring to Arab Summer,” Science Editors and Journalists (FASEJ) will Columbia Journalism Review host the 8th World Conference of Science Scorching 115°F outdoor temperatures and http://bit.ly/qO0MCc Journalists, in June 2013. n overly air-conditioned buildings. See pages 22-23 for featured Doha photos SUMMER 2011 1 Deadline Tokyo How NPR Covered Japan’s Disasters by Joe Palca n March 11, I was in New York City because Ira Flatow had asked me to fill in for him as host of “Science Friday.” When I arrived at the NPR New York bureau around 8 in the morning, the first thing I did was check the wires. It was instantly apparent that we Owould have to change the show. A major earthquake and tsunami had struck northern Japan. I called senior producer Annette Heist and she agreed we should dump one of the segments we had planned, and do something about the natural disaster instead. oss Stein, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park Ragreed to come on the program. Stein is a tsunami expert. He was the first guest when the program began that afternoon. Like most people not directly involved in the early hours of a disaster, Stein could speak only in generalities. He knew the tsunami and earthquake were large, but the scale of the destruction was not entirely clear when the show went live on the air. There was no mention of what the tsunami might have done to the nuclear power atory plants at Fukushima. V As I rode back to Washington the next ser day on the train, I wondered how the NPR H OB science desk was going to cover this natural art disaster. Richard Harris was clearly the NASA E of go-to guy when it came to earthquakes. He had been on “Morning Edition Friday” and courtesy did talk about a nuclear power plant that ic had lost cooling water. PH Gra “We’re keeping a close eye on that,” he (left) Greg Dixon, director of “All Things told host Renee Montagne. Considered,” was assigned to run NPR’s Japan sunami But keeping a close eye on something T coverage from Tokyo. (center) Dixon and Joe Palca and in action. (right) Palca speaking into a USB cable half way ‘round the world is tricky. NPR no instead of a microphone during a light moment. longer has a permanent base in Tokyo, and uake NASA Earth Observatory image showing the even when there was a bureau, it was small. HQ epicenter of the March 11 magnitude 9.0 earthquake We would have had to rely on pictures from art 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of Sendai, Japan, R; E which sent tsunami waves rushing into the coast (Japanese Broadcasting Corporation) NHK P N of Japan and rippling out across the entire Pacific of and news reports from the wire services basin. The smaller circles show aftershocks (solid circles) and foreshocks (dotted) and aftershocks and Japanese newspapers to “keep a close (solid lines) ranging from magnitudes 5 to 7.9. eye” on what was going on in northern courtesy (sources: earthobservatory.nasa.gov and on earthquake.usgs.gov) Japan even if the bureau had been open. X I D and Joe Palca is a science correspondent for National Public Radio. Palca 2 SCIENCE WRITER S With Richard and Chris in Tokyo, cover- age shifted there. But in truth, access to sources was not all that different from what was available in Washington. The primary advantage was that the televised news con- ferences were occurring during the day Tokyo time, instead of the middle of the … keeping night Washington time. With the help of translators, Chris and Richard moni- y Saturday night, the scale of the tored events from a room at the ANA a close eye nuclear power plant accident was Intercontinental Hotel, and filed stories for on something Bbecoming apparent.