All posts by erin

That British Sense of Humor

State of Journalism

I have to give Deb Blum credit for passing around this article from the Guardian that spoofs science writing. Anyone who has ever written or read science news should read it. It crushes my soul but gives me tremendous hope all in one fell swoop. Essentially, 99.9% of science news is less than stellar. At least now keeping myself out of this category is something I can strive for.

The comments that follow the article are equally hilarious and actually really add to the article, completing the satire of web media and public interaction.

My favorites:
“This is where I forgot to say that 99% of other scientists researching in this field disagree and think this scientist is a nutter” (I love that this person used the word nutter)
“This comment is simply an inexplicable and unrelated reference to Hitler”
“THIS COMMENT IN CAPITALS WILL DEMAND THAT SOMETHING BE BANNED”

This whole thing had me laughing out loud. A win for Martin Robbins.

Book Review: Slouching Toward Bethlehem

Book Review, Grad School,

My procrastination has continued in full force – I really don’t want to write an essay now that I’ve gotten myself into article/journalist mode, but it must be done. But anyway, in addition to cleaning the apartment, running errands, taking a walk, I also read Joan Didion’s Slouching Toward Bethlehem for J669 next week as a means of putting off my essay for 620.  Which I’m going to start after this blog post, I promise.

slouching-towards-bethlehemI have been pretty critical of some of the books I’ve read for class so far this semester, but I actually really loved this collection of Didion’s essays and articles. I think she is great the way that she is so clearly a part of the text but in the news pieces she never uses first person. I guess you just really get a sense of how she views herself through her writing no matter what the subject matter.

She is also really great with one-liners that just completely stop you in your tracks as you are working through a page. I always admire writers who can set up a rhythm and then completely knock you off it without leaving a reader feeling disoriented. All of the work in this collection also use really great language, I think she is a good example of the idea that all words have a specific meaning, and that there are no synonyms. She seems to focus on choosing the perfect word for what she is trying to convey.

So overall, this one was a win. I think its also important to note that for how famous and well regarded Joan Didion is, I had never heard of her before. We’ve been talking in J669 about the new journalists – Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, Truman Capote and I think its interesting that out of the whole bunch, Didion was the one that I hadn’t heard of.

I also have to say that the title of the book made me think of Lehigh, how I miss Bethlehem, PA.

Is There A Market for Female Science Bloggers?

Grad School, Guest Lecture, State of Journalism

Yesterday in J901 Deborah Blum gave a talk about how to make money as a writer (which certainly isn’t easy these days). One of the things she recommended was that all writers should have a blog where they promote themselves as a brand. I’m not sure how I feel about this blog representing me, but since apparently more people are reading it than I even realized I guess it really does.

Deb passed along this article from Seed, Blogging Out of Balance by Dave Munger that talks about how there are many more male science bloggers on the big blogging hubs than there are female. Some of this probably correlates with the fact that science and research used to be a boys game, but I also think it has to do with the fact that many female bloggers want to be anonymous.

I suppose I qualify as a science blogger but there is a big difference between my science writing blog and a blog that is written by a researcher. There are a lot of science writers that do have degrees in biology, chemistry, physics, geology, etc. and so can consider themselves an expert in whatever science field they choose to blog about. Since I do not have a degree in any science, I don’t think I’d want to have my blog be about a certain research field, I don’t want to make false claims about being an expert. What I know is writing, which is why this blog is all about being a science journalist, instead of about the science itself.

Interview Bureaucracy

Grad School, State of Journalism

Today I did a lot of interviewing for an article that I have due for J800 next week. I was pretty unsure about the topic, funding for addiction research, but now that I’ve spoken to several people I am much more confident that I can make it really interesting. I have all of the materials that I need to write it now too, which always makes me happy because then I have time to write the article and re-work it over the course of several days without waiting for sources down to the wire.

In the course of my interviewing, I had to track down someone from NIDA the National Institute on Drug Abuse. I considered just cold calling numbers I found on the NIDA website, but I decided that even if it took me a couple of days I stood a much better chance if I actually went through the media office. So thats what I did, and I think it worked out really well because I got the material I needed from an official source and didn’t really waste a lot of time calling around and getting re-directed. So lesson definitely learned, when dealing with the government go right for the PR people, they pull the strings.

The Chili Pepper Angle

Good Writing, New Research

I really don’t find food and nutrition writing all that interesting (sorry to those who do but its just not my cup of tea) but I wanted to highlight this article on chili peppers from the New York Times. A Perk of Our Evolution: Pleasure in Pain of Chilies by James Gorman because I think he takes a really interesting approach to talking about a food item.

The angle the Gorman uses is answering the question of what makes humans want to eat foods that are hot/spicy with chili flavor even though at times it can be painful? I think this is an interesting way to approach writing about peppers, and honestly I was just impressed that Gorman was able to write such a long article about the topic without it becoming boring or redundant.
There are also parts of the article that Gorman writes in first person, which is an interesting choice. The article starts off as would be expected, a soft lead that describes a chili pepper festival – hinting at the allure of the vegetables and then goes into expert opinion. So when Gorman inserts his own narrative later on in the piece and discusses his own feelings toward chili peppers I was a little surprised. I do think it works though, because with a topic that could easily slip into the mundane, the more casual feel later in the piece actually works to hold me attention.