By Ferris Jabr
Hi! I'm one of the graduate travel fellows. I will be attending ScienceWriters2010 with many of my classmates from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) — a 16-month MA in science journalism. Most of us have never attended an NASW conference and we are excited for all the great events, familiar faces and new acquaintances.
I am slated to blog about Saturday's discussion entitled "Data visualization for reporting and storytelling," which attracts me because it is a field about which I am relatively naive and would like to better understand. Data, particularly statistics and hard numbers, are often missing from what are otherwise excellent stories. The craft of translating data into a visually appealing and informative component of a story is not a "neat" skill to be showcased once in a while - it is as vital as narrative, fact-checking and structure. A single effective graphic can transform both the story itself and the readers' interaction with that story.
About me: I am a writer and science journalist based in NYC. In 2009 I graduated from Tufts University, where I double majored in psychology and English and studied a lot of biology. I moved to NYC in September 2009 and this December I will graduate from SHERP. I have been interning with Scientific American MIND since May and I have published articles with Scientific American, Psychology Today, Popular Mechanics and SHERP's webzine Scienceline.org. You can visit my personal website and follow me on Twitter.
