How are science journalists born?
August 31, 2017
How are science journalists born? Do you think it is enough to graduate from a university with a journalistic degree? But would that be sufficient help in a storm of unfamiliar but extremely important scientific terms which will immediately rush upon you during first field work. It is not possible just to write down everything you hear. You need to have enough language flexibility, so the information you have collected would be relevant in any context. Not only the knowledge of basic concepts, but also involvement will play a curtail role in this job. You are more likely to be successful in your career having a personal interests in the things you face every day. No one wants to come home struggling to forget that nonsense she or he had to think about and talk about during the whole day!
So, in my opinion, the science journalist has to be a scientist at the first place. Just imagine how many pages on specific topics were read by a person who chose the scientific path after school. In some cases, this path was chosen far before attendance to university. Comprehending various sources of information is of course the key to becoming a journalist. Analysis, comparison, constant presence in the environment together with access to solid and up to date information from professionals… Wait, don’t we have all this in Arcada in the Materials Processing Technology department?
According to SciDev.net most editors state that a science writer should encompass 80 percent of fine journalism and 20 percent of science “in the blood”. However, later in the article, a quote of Anthony Tucker says, that for science writer to succeed, one should have “…an insatiable appetite for reading, and the best are endowed with a memory like a filing cabinet.” Which obviously do not correspond specifically to one´s philological proclivity.
To conclude, there are much more opportunities in your life than you ever could possibly imagine. And if you always loved to read and, maybe, even if just in first grade, you have proudly written a couple of clumsy lines of your own thoughts, next time you write a report for a class, try to imagine that you are a science journalist. Who knows, perhaps you will find an answer to this article´s question.
/Daria, 2nd year student of Material’s Processing Technology
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