Specialized Training and the Science Writer

Abstract

The problem of specialization in news reporting is enormously complex and often confusing, with arguments centering around how much expertise the specialized reporter should have and how he should acquire it. In perhaps no other area is the complexity and confusion greater or more perplexing than in science writing.

Strengths and weaknesses of specialized training for science writing were explored in a mail survey of 152 newspaper, magazine, and free lance science writers in the United States and Canada. Advantages and disadvantages of specialized training were identified through analysis of comments which many science writers made on the questionnaires they returned. Some recommendations for potential science writers are presented.

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References

Stokley

James

, report of the Committee on Professional Training, National Association of Science Writers, Inc., published in the NASW Newsletter 12:18–20 (September 1964), p. 18.

Ibid., pp. 18–19.

Mr. Manchester is quoted in “Report: Conference on the Role of Schools of Journalism in the Professional Training of Science Writers” (Washington, D.C.: Science Service, 1961), p. R6.

Donohue

G.A.

Tichenor

P.J.

Olien

C.N.

, “Mass Media Functions, Knowledge and Social Control,” Journalism Quarterly 50:652–659 (Winter 1973), pp. 655–56.