We're A Sell-Out!

By Janet Rae-Dupree

And other journalists out there in Twitter-ville already are jealous of us. This from @ReportingHealth:

ReportingHealth Reporting on Health 

This sounds awesome. Unfortunately, it's closed to new applicants.
ScienceWriters2010 meeting: http://bit.ly/aWSVTC

The link takes you to a post from NASW's director noting that SciWri10 is completely full, with no capacity for on-site or late registrations. Now, I'm not hugely experienced in these things, but this likely is one of the first times this has happened! I believe it's a good omen for science journalism that so many people are clamoring for what NASW has to offer. I'm particularly jazzed by the number of trained scientists who want to identify themselves as science communicators. I'm also encouraged by the increasing popularity of such books as Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy by Robert Hazen and James Trefil. First published circa 1990, I believe, it appears to have been updated/refreshed and released in 2009 as a new paperback. IMHO, this should be required reading for every 8th or 9th grade student in the United States.

I'd also like to draw more attention within journalism circles to the work being done by the good people at ReportingonHealth.org. The tagline is that the group is "non-profit, non-partisan and educational" and "offers professional resources and community for journalists covering health issues." But it's so much more! As part of the California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships at USC's Annenberg School for Communication, it has a number of grant-funded journalists producing much-needed work. Among my favorites are The ReportingonHealth Daily Briefing by ReportingonHealth's deputy editor Barbara Feder Ostrov, and Antidote: New Ways to Investigate Untold Health Stories by contributing editor William Heisel. I've heard some discussion in the past about the similarities and differences between science writers and health writers, but when it comes to supporting continuing education of any kind for working journalists, I'm a true believer.

Looking forward to my upcoming continuing education at SciWri10 starting tomorrow!