lecture 3: blogs & twitter 101, intro to science journalism
TRANSCRIPT
Introduction to Blogging and Science Journalism
•Blogging 101
•Twitter 101
•Science Journalism
•Homework
Outline
•Blog = web + log
•Originally was used more as an online journal
•Updated frequently
•Implies a community (writers AND readers)
•Promotes collaboration
•A resource (just like our class blog is!)
•Reverse Chronological entries (blog posts)
•Effective E-Portoflio i.e. business card!
What is a blog?
ALES 204 blog
NOTE:
What is Twitter?
How to Use Twitter
•Send class tweets to me, @JessL
•Use our class hashtag, #ALES204
Twitter for ALES 204
Use your laptop, smart phone, friend’s laptop etc… to:
•Tweet me something that you just learned about twitter.
Remember, send to me (@JessL) and use our class hashtag
Pop Quiz
•It is a branch of journalism that uses reporting to convey information about science topics to the public.
•The communication of scientific knowledge through mass media requires a special relationship between the world of science and news media, which is still just beginning to form.
•Read more on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_journalism
What is Science journalism?
They must
“render the very detailed, specific and often jargon-laden information produced by scientists into a form that the average
media consumer can understand and appreciate, while still communicating the
information accurately.”
What are science journalists?
Example: At the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology meeting in July 2009, 1400 researchers came togetherHardly any maintained lengthy face-to-face contact…instead,They tweeted and blogged about:•research as it was presented•followed parallel sessions •provided an opportunity for researchers not at the meeting, as well as a far wider community, to actively participate
Interestingly, the “virtual coverage” of the conference was so complete, that it was used to write an authoritative conference summary published in PLoS Computational Biology: http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000263
Social Media and Science Journalism
•“a Project that basically puts action where the mouth is,” i.e. instead of blogging the 'eek, oh my, what's happening to the news media world?' – it is instead an ambitious and pragmatic attempt at getting the next generation of science journalists well equipped with some solid science and new media skills
•It promotes professional best practice and is seeking to implement a transparent advertising revenue exchange programme
New Science Journalism Project
With a partner or in a group of 3:
Visit the New Science Journalism Project, choose a tag (energy, environment, health) and read a couple of articles
Discuss them with your partner/in your group
Each person in the group must then tweet (@JessL):
a short synopsis of each article (one tweet per article)
why the New Science Journalism project is important (@JessL and @nsjproject)
Activity
New Science Journalism
Come to next class having read:
Public Library of Science (PLoS): http://blogs.plos.org/blogosphere/
Scientopia: http://scientopia.org/blogs/
Not Exactly Rocket Science:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/
Homework