Curtis Brainard

Science media centers & the press, part 1

cjr.org — With a mission to provide the press and the public with high-quality scientific information and sources, the Science Media Centers in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan have become influential, but controversial players in the world of journalism. While some reporters find them helpful, others believe they are biased toward government and industry scientists.

Science media centers & the press, part 1

cjr.org — With a mission to provide the press and the public with high-quality scientific information and sources, the Science Media Centers in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan have become influential, but controversial players in the world of journalism. While some reporters find them helpful, others believe they are biased toward government and industry scientists.

Maryn McKenna chosen as inaugural Knight Journalism Project Fellow at MIT.

ksj.mit.edu — She will spend some time at MIT in Cambridge next year, to participate in seminars with the other Knight science journalism fellows, and otherwise will be free to roam in pursuit of her story. She was awarded the fellowship for a project on food science and food production that will lead to a book-length manuscript and a series of multimedia stories by May, 2014.

Andrew Revkin, David Roberts, and you?

grist.org — Andrew Revkin has been on the front lines of environmental journalism for decades. He picked up the climate story before many of us had heard of it. He's best known for his Dot Earth blog at the New York Times, where he covered environmental issues as a reporter from 1995 to 2009.

The fracking story comes closer to home

cjr.org — PROVO, UT - On Monday, The New York Times wrote about an "unlikely resistance" building in "energy-friendly" Greeley, CO. "As [oil and gas] companies here and across the energy-rich West look for new places to drill," reported the Times 's Jack Healy, "they are increasingly looking toward more densely populated areas, and bumping into environmentalists and homeowners."

MRSA MRSA MRSA! : Columbia Journalism Review

cjr.org — This is the first installment in an occasional series about antimicrobial resistance, which is one of the planet's most challenging public health threats. Maybe you don't worry much about MRSA. Or maybe you've never heard of it, let alone reported on it. If you are on the healthcare beat, though, maybe it's time.

SEJ Member Spotlight: Dan Fagin

sej.org — () Dan Fagin wrote his first environmental story when he was 16. It was about the failures of his school's recycling program - the custodians were cheating! He's been writing only environmental stories since he was 27. He's 50 now, so that's a lot of stories!

Columbia Journalism Review

cjr.org — Check your caller ID. If you're a reporter who has criticized Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for spouting nonsense about vaccines and autism, your phone could ring at any minute, and if you pick up, you're in for a long, time-wasting lecture.

Wring out your existing content to get dozens of blog posts

dontgetcaught.biz — Most of the time, my work on client's blogs is limited to training and strategies. But recently, my clients at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University--a client with a communications staff of four--were down one person, putting a big 25 percent drop in staffing.