What Do Science Journalists Do?

BIDS Data Science Lecture Series | March 4, 2016 | 1:10-2:30 p.m. | 190 Doe Library, UC Berkeley

Speaker: John Bohannon, Correspondent, Science

Ever wonder what science journalists do all day? In this talk, I'm going to give you the stories behind the stories I worked on last week:

Many surveys, about one in five, may contain fraudulent data
Fight over author pseudonyms could flare again
Even on eBay, women get paid less for their labor
Science journalism is how people learn about your research and about you. When we journalists do our job well, the public gets informed efficiently and accurately. When we fall asleep at the wheel, millions of people start believing that vaccines are best avoided, that climate change is a fantasy, or that chocolate causes weight loss. (Wait, that last one was me!)

One of these days you're going to get a call from a science journalist. In this talk, I will offer three easy tips on how to manipulate the journalist into doing the right thing, or at least getting the science less wrong.

Also, I will be giving a sneak preview at a data-driven story due to come out in Science later this month. It's a doozy.