Connecting the Next Generation of Science Journalists with Scientists in Action

Andrea Jones¹, Lora Bleacher², Jacob Bleacher², Timothy Glotch³, Kelsey Young⁴, Barbara Selvin⁵, Richard Firstman⁵

1 Planetary Science Institute, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA
2 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt RoAad, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA
3 Stony Brook University, 250 Earth and Space Sciences, Stony Brook, New York 11794-2100, USA
4 CRESST/University of Maryland at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA
5 Stony Brook University School of Journalism, 3384 SUNY, Stony Brook, New York 11794-3384, USA

Introduction

As scientific advances and controversies flood the media, journalists with strong scientific backgrounds must ensure that complex science is portrayed accurately (Mooney, 2004). Science journalists see evidence-based reporting with scientific explanation and argumentation as essential tenets of their work (Secko and Fleury, 2014). NASA’s Remote, In Situ, and Synchrotron Studies for Science and Exploration (RIS⁴E; pronounced “rise”) team recognizes this need, and in collaboration with the Stony Brook University School of Journalism and the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, created the RIS⁴E Science Journalism Program. This innovative program uses RIS⁴E research to help journalism students strengthen their understanding of the practice of science and learn to report more effectively and accurately on scientific research. RIS⁴E begins with a semester-long science journalism practicum and culminates with a field experience in which students report on active NASA planetary science field research. This is the first program to engage undergraduate and graduate journalism students as a team in a deep, extended investigation of a NASA research effort.

Manuscript received 27 Apr. 2016; Revised manuscript received 21 Sept. 2016; Accepted 23 Sept. 2016

10.1130/GSATG294GW.1

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