In this session, four journalists from different outlets discussed if reporters should take an elitist and an intellectual stance when writing about science. The consensual answer was “no”. They all agreed that science journalism cannot afford to be highbrow if it wants to reach the masses.

Nalaka Gunawardene, co-founder and director of Television for Education in Asia Pacific, opened the session saying that journalists should experiment and show the public that science can be fun. Different than what is happening to the media in the US and the UK, this sector is not going through a crisis in Asia. According to Gunawardene, there has been a newspapers boom and an increase in newspaper subscriptions in some countries. He reminded, however, that this does not mean that there has been more coverage of science-related topics, but it is certainly a great opportunity for science journalism to improve in the region.

Paul Sutherland, freelance journalist and writer – frequently bylined “The Sun Spaceman” – showed some of his favourite science stories, full of superlatives, weird illustrations and humour. In his opinion, these are important ingredients to attract the interest of more people towards science.

Christina Scott, African news editor of SciDev.Net, said going lowbrow was the only option to get science in African media. In her opinion, all efforts to put science in the news are welcomed, no matter if it is just a small note. In the current celebrity culture, in which science competes with Britney Spears for space, the more coverage the better, she said. “There is a brutal competition. If we go highbrow, we’ll end up as the dinosaurs.”

The last one to talk, David Derbyshire, environment editor of The Daily Mail, said he has no problem reporting thunder stories in a fun, excited way, as long as they are accurate. He said he actually finds reporting science in the popular media much harder than going highbrow, since their readers are not particular interested in science and the space to deal with complex scientific issues is very small. “We have to give our readers reliable science stories in a way they can understand”, he said.

In the debate that followed the presentation, many other topics were addressed. Discussing the issue of press releases, the presenters tended to agree that even though they are important, reporters cannot rely entirely on them. Christina, on the other hand, said in South Africa most of the press releases have very bad quality and end up being useless.

On the relationship between scientists and journalists, Paul Sutherland argued scientists should be left to do what they do well and so should journalists, with no place for bad interference between the two professions. Christina, however, said it is very difficult for journalists in South Africa to talk to young scientists. According to her, only the top scientists, who hold a safe job position, feel comfortable to talk with the media, which results in building a gap between these two actors.

Carla Almeida