The New World of Science Blogs

Posted on | January 26, 2008 | Comments Off on The New World of Science Blogs

Impact of science blogging on journalism and academia is growing

Last weekend marked the second annual North Carolina Science Blogging Conference in Research Triangle Park, N.C. More than 200 scientists, journalists, educators and students from around the U.S., Canada, Serbia, Sweden and England registered for the event held this year at Sigma Xi, the scientific research society.

For me the highlight was a breakout session moderated by Adnaan Wasey, a producer/writer for The Newshour With Jim Lehrer.

In “unconference mode” suggested by blogging organizers Anton Zuiker and Bora Zivkovic, participants tried to nail down the definition of a science blog. Various categorizations included science diary, science opinion piece, backgrounder, news analysis… bottom line is that science blogs are as diverse as the backgrounds of those who write them.

Where science blogs fit in the evolving world of science journalism was another focus of discussion. Journalists from large media companies talked about the schizophrenia of writing traditional science stories overseen by one or more editors and then opining on the latest scientific controversies with little or no editorial oversight.

Still serious science bloggers follow many journalistic and academic conventions, including scrupulous sourcing. Conference organizer Zuiker noted in an email after the conference, “…the way bloggers link to other perspectives, primary sources (and often multiple instances of a primary source, such as video clips of a speech) and open-source resources shows that science bloggers want the reader to judge the accuracy and validity of a blog post. This isn’t so much adopting journalistic conventions as triangulating them with the science publishing conventions.”

The beauty of the medium is that freelance science bloggers can attract a following without the baggage of being under the umbrella of major media companies who invariably will exert an influence — albeit sometimes subtle — on the topics and treatments of their blogs. As Zuiker observed, “Science blogs can inform, educate, entertain, same as a science magazine or radio show or newspaper column. But blogs can do it faster and more frequently.”

For a huge number of science blogging links, go to the Science Blogs page that Zuiker, Zivkovic and co-organizers Brian Russell and Paul Jones have set up. It may be hours before you come out the other side.