Debate about the state of science journalism in the UK.

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From an idea in an author's head, to a book in a reader's hand, there is much about the science book trade that may surprise. This session aims to unlock the mysteries behind writing a book proposal, such as getting an agent, making proposals to editors at publishing houses, how editors have to sell books to their sales/marketing teams, doing deals and getting book buyers interested.

Science media centres are proving to be very effective mechanisms for injecting evidence-based science into public debate. Independent, fast-responding and news savvy, they provide a “public good” service that ensures the public has access to the best information available on the most important issues of the day. Centres are operating in the U.K., Australia and N.Z., a fourth is about to open in Canada, and others are being discussed in Africa.

For two whole weeks around the world, the only news was swine flu news. In different countries media reacted with different levels of scepticism, reflection and temperance. As the dust settled on these first waves of infection many claimed it as another senseless scare story even though the experts had very real concerns. Scientists still believe that infectious diseases are going to have a huge impact in the future, but how fine is the line between informing and scaring?

Professor John Martin, one of the world’s leading heart disease experts, has controversially compared the UK’s science journalists to the greedy bankers who have sparked the economic meltdown. He believes that the hyping and sensationalising of recent developments in science like stem cell research will lead to a similar collapse of faith in science and now himself boycotts the British press in favour of reading Le Monde and the Algemeiner Zeitung.

In 2009, global climate change heats up on the international stage. The United Nations will attempt to hammer out a new international treaty to curb greenhouse gas emissions, culminating in the Copenhagen meeting in December. The world will be watching for a strong signal from the new American President and Congress that the United States is ready to move forward after eight years of inaction by the Bush Administration. At the same time, the issue of climate change has enormous competition from other global issues, from an economic meltdown to food shortages. How well ar

Can you use the end of the world to sell a story? The switch-on of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider took the world’s media by storm in September 2008 after rumours started to circulate that it could generate tiny black holes. Physicists and engineers were confident that, even if this happened, these would disappear instantaneously and could not grow to swallow up the Earth, but the myth persisted and even resulted in a court case against CERN. How far can journalists and press officers collude to raise interest in otherwise standard stories?

So we now know that top dogs in the banking sector should have paid more attention in maths class and maybe taken a compulsory lesson in ethical business practices. But what about claims that many reporters' understanding of the crisis is less than perfect and this compounds the situation? Are hyperinflated reports of the latest downturn doing more harm than good, or could (preemptive?) optimism in the media really save the economy?

The media plays a pivotal role in raising awareness about cancer and promoting informed debate about improving treatment and care. However, the quality of coverage is often poor - particularly the reporting of cancer breakthroughs. Cancer is a challenging topic to cover well. Journalists often face problems in accessing accurate information, finding credible sources and resisting the pressure to sensationalise stories. This session will explore how journalists can report cancer breakthroughs in a more balanced manner.

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Session 27.mp3

Few issues provoke such impassioned debate as the issue of Embargoes in science reporting. Some science journalists are increasingly angry about what they see as ever more draconian sanctions on journalists for minor infringements of embargoes. Some others are angry that that science journals are wrongly labelling genuine scoops as embargo breaks and thus imposing unjustified sanctions.