Science Journalism :: Informed Science Journalism: How Much Do You Need to Know?

Informed Science Journalism: How Much Do You Need to Know?

By Anna Fong

Hannah Hoag is different from most science journalists in Canada. She has a science degree.

Only 20% of the science journalists interviewed in a recent study had completed a university degree in science. Many of the others have university degrees but they are mainly in English, history and political science.

Responses to question: Do you have a science degree?

Almost all of the articles Hoag writes are related to science. “From my personal interest and my background, I tend to cover genes, drugs and disease,” she says. She also currently writes a lot about climate change, biodiversity and environmental protection. So her two master’s degrees – one in biology from McGill and another in science and medical journalism from Boston University – plus the fellowship she completed at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, MA, come in handy.

There is an ongoing debate between science journalists whether a science degree is necessary to write well-informed science stories.

“We need more people with science backgrounds to go into journalism. I’m not sure, that after the fact, you can take a journalist with no science background and train them to do it very well,” says Helen Fallding, an assistant city editor from the Winnipeg Free Press She has both a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science degree.

But some members of the media argue that having a science degree hinders their ability to explain research to the general public in layman terms.

“You can’t expect that [the audience] knows the full background [of a science story], which is why I think it’s good if we as journalists come from the naïve standpoint and expect that most things then need to be explained,” says Joseph Brean, who has a Bachelor of Arts and writes health and medical news for the National Post in Toronto.

Although she feels that having more journalists with science backgrounds wouldn’t hurt, Fallding agrees that it needn’t be an absolute requirement.

“I don’t think they need to have one, but I think they need to be capable of getting one. You have to have that kind of brain,” says Fallding. “Some of the Globe’s top science journalists don’t have a science degree, but they’re certainly people who, if they’d chosen to pursue that in university, would have done fine.”

Hoag, a freelance science journalist, has over six years of writing experience and many of her stories have an educational focus. She tries to use her background knowledge to help increase science literacy.

“For the public that is no longer in school it’s probably one of the only ways they are learning or building on whatever science education they have,” says Hoag. “Even if it is in little bite-sized forms, it contributes to their overall understanding of the world.”

Hoag believes the role of a science writer is, to some degree, to be an educator, but not all journalists share this viewpoint.

“In the regular daily news stuff I don’t think we have so much of a role to play as the educator but more of a messenger of ideas,” says Brean.

As part of ongoing research at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of British Columbia, 25 journalists who regularly cover science were interviewed about their educational backgrounds and any special training they have.

Responses to question: What specific training and experience do you have that help you do science journalism?

In addition to many other questions, we also asked for their opinion on how to improve the current state of science journalism in Canada. While the debate surrounding having a science degree continues, one thing the interviewees agreed upon that would improve Canadian science journalism was on-the-job training for journalists through classes and workshops.

“I know that in the United States there are a large number of health organizations that do provide workshops for reporters and I don’t think there’s as much of that in Canada,” said one reporter based in Hamilton.

Tom Blackwell, who has been reporting for the National Post for five years, agrees.

“Generally speaking the Canadian media lacks in terms of professional development of journalists. There is relatively little spent on continuing education on their reporters and editors. I think if there was more of that I think it would be a good thing,” he says.

“Maybe the solution is the education of editors,” says one Ottawa-based reporter.

Editors are the ones who make the final decision on whether to print a story and the amount of space it will receive. They also play a role in deciding how much money will go towards educational training.

Unfortunately, only three editors agreed to be interviewed.

Responses to question: What formal academic training do you have?