Jordan Wirfs-Brock's Library tagged watchdog → View Popular, Search in Google

Jul

2009

On cheerleaders and watchdogs - the role of science journalism : Not Exactly Rocket Science

I hope I ultimately become the type of science writer that Young describes:
"To sum up, we have two possible ways of acting as a watchdog - uncovering the hidden stories behind scientific discoveries, and casting a critical eye on those discoveries either visibly through the actual text or invisibly through the process of selecting what to cover."
But I also think I have a (possibly idealistic and flawed) dream of science writing that actually inclues some, well, science. I hope to combine data analysis of my own with story-telling ... is that futile? Or just off-limits for science journalists? If that's the case, then maybe I need to steer more towards investigative journalism, at least in name. And can journalism be both investigative and narrative? I sure hope so... Oh well, I've made kind of a habit of not fitting into intellectual boxes, so I'll just plan on making a career out of doing just that.