we're in dialogue across borders to explore practices in
science communication!
Concurrent Dialogues
The project is being developed parallely across the globe– in both India and the UK with formal workshops and voices informing both cohort.
'From Audiences to Visibility': The project began with a set of workshops to create a landscape for science communication in both countries. The key themes from Science Journalism Workshops were:
-
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Environmental Reporting;
-
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion; and
-
Digital Skills.
The project kicked off with three workshops in the UK in March and April 2023. UWE hosted three workshops, each focusing on a specific topic.
click on a tab to explore our
learnings from
the workshops !
27th May 2023
IISER Pune hosted a Journalists’ Roundtable event on 27th May 2023, at our Pune, focusing on the same topics.
-
sustainable development goals (SDGs) and environmental reporting;
-
equality, diversity, and inclusion; and
-
digital skills.
Prof M S Santhanam, the Dean (International Relations and Outreach) - and a popular science writer himself - opened the session with his experiences of communicating quantum physics in simple metaphors for people of all ages, and in various regional languages in India.
Session 1:
Digital Skills and Challenges
Lead by Karthik Chandramouli (Mongabay India)
IISER’s first session explored digital skills and challenges in a media landscape dominated by the swiftly evolving internet. Content creation on different platforms and in different contexts was identified as the most crucial, complimented by soft skills that are needed to receive, analyze, and deliver information accurately.
The emergence of Chat GPT and similar generative AI platforms raised concerns over the ever-growing problem of misinformation as well. Various challenges in this space were identified, most importantly a lack of a sci-comm oriented community within, as well as between journalists and academics, and the tricky balance between technical nuance and simple language for broader impact.
Session 2:
Sustainable Development Goals
Lead by Sahana Ghosh (Nature India)
The second session identified Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as outlined by the United Nations. Journalists identified various SDGs that have been a part of their science reporting, whether intentionally or without explicit mention. Sustainable Cities, Climate Action, Health and Wellbeing, Clean Water and Sanitisation came up as SDGs reported most frequently by the participants. Information credibility and bias were also key challenges identified, while incorporating citizen science came up as a potential way to improve SDG reporting while bridging the gap between the public and journalists.
.png)
Session 3:
Diversity, Equity & Inclusivity
Lead by Dr Emma Weitkamp (UWE Bristol) & Dr Shalini Sharma (IISER Pune)
The third session on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, tackled the questions of why we need DEI in sci-comm. Journalists noted down their own career paths and identified points where DEI support, or the lack of it, had shaped their journey. The special focus was on issues of gender, class, caste, language, disability, and other social inequalities in the Indian context. Journalists noted that a general perspective shift from the Global North was required to carry out better, more efficient science communication in India.
7th September 2023
The second roundtable with science journalists focused on the themes:
-
Session 1: DEI in Science Journalism/Communication: Identity, Sources, Content, and Formats
-
Session 2: Journalism/Communication Toolkit: Practical Skills and Soft Skills
-
Session 3: Sustainability of Science Journalism in India
Prof. M. S. Santhanam, the Dean IRO (International Relations and Outreach) and a science writer began the session with an introduction to why scicomm matters and how scientists perceive the needs and challenges in the fields. The roundtable comprised journalists from across the countries representing a diverse array of subjects and media formats.
Session 1:
Identity and Roles
Lead by Dr Andy Ridgway (UWE, Bristol
The first session delved into a science journalist's identity and what the profession's fundamentals could be. Using Fahy and Nisbet’s roles [1] as the building blocks, journalists discussed which roles they identified with and what roles were missing from the dialogue. When reporting science, adhering to high standards of objectivity and accuracy is imperative. Yet the stories must be crafted to stand out in the crowd of more “popular” news items and have clear takeaways. In the Indian context, the science journalists’ role as a disseminator is crucial to the functioning of an informed democracy. Journalists listed the various sources for their science news stories - from combing through journals and keeping track of scientists’ communications, to using tools like Google Alerts. Twitter came up as a rapidly emerging platform for scientists and organisations to share new science instantaneously.
References:
[1] Fahy, D., & Nisbet, M. C. (2011). The science journalist online: Shifting roles and emerging practices. Journalism, 12(7), 778-793. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884911412697
Live Sketchnote Creator: Tanmay Jen
Session 2:
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Lead by Dr Shalini Sharma (IISER Pune)
The key aspect of this session was Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the field. There was a twofold problem of DEI lacking in the science covered by journalists as well as in their own professional spaces. Despite recognizing the need to feature diverse scientists in the news, journalists struggled with finding and accessing experts from different genders, castes, and other marginalized social groups- especially in senior positions. In India’s case, linguistic and cultural barriers are omnipresent and are a major hindrance in all fields of reporting. Some newsgroups are trying to permeate through these barriers by publishing global news, including science news, in regional supplements in the local language(s) and by employing native speakers from these communities to write and translate stories. A noticeable lack of journalists with disabilities exists in the field.
Live Sketchnote Creator: Yatish Juneja
Session 3:
Skills and Skilling
Lead by Sahana Ghosh (Nature India)
This session started with journalists listing and ranking three skills they considered the most important. Some hard skills to convey research findings in a simple manner included fact-checking, understanding research workflow, statistical data analysis, building subject familiarity, and effective visualization of data and concepts. Journalists also recognized their need to bring sensitivity, inclusivity, and a human connection to science stories through the newsroom processes. Social media communication and emerging AI are challenging yet necessary skills for future science journalists. Although not traditionally counted in journalistic skills, collaboration and fundraising also came up as crucial for current and future professionals.
Live Sketchnote Creator: Yatish Juneja
Session 4:
Reflections
Lead by Sahana Ghosh (Nature India)
The workshop concluded with a short session of reflections by journalists adding points that could not be covered in the discussions. Journalists went deeper into the working and ethical concerns of AI tools, reemphasizing adapting to audiences and media, and selection of tools to include in the course curricula.
Live Sketchnote Creator: Yatish Juneja
In India, the host institution IISER Pune invited a diverse cohort of science communicators- authors, journalists, filmmakers, program coordinators etc. for the workshops and roundtable discussions. Each workshop had curated sessions around the three core themes.
As part of the project, students were also invited to a roundtable discussion on diversity and inclusion.
Workshop 1: Journalists' Roundtable, 27th May 2023
Workshop 2: Science Communicators Roundtable, 7th & 8th September 2023
Workshop 3: Student's Roundtable, 9th September 2023
9th September 2023
While we continued our journalists’ roundtables with more participants, a stark gap remained where disabled journalists ought to have been. There are no science journalists in India with physical disabilities, and their perspective was lacking from our DEI discussions.
Concurrently, we at the Science Media Centre realized that, even though a few disabled students are admitted into IISER every year, only a handful had approached us with a desire to engage in science communication. Thus, we reached out to students to gauge their interest in science communication and discuss the barriers they face and possible ways to overcome them.
The roundtable was attended by five students enrolled in the BS-MS program, who were clearly passionate about learning science and doing research. They also faced various physical disabilities which resulted in restricted vision, movement, and speech.
Over the course of the discussion, we learned that they were curious about science communication after hearing of the SMC’s activities, but were primarily discouraged by the perception that disabled people cannot do science communication. The students then discussed their strengths and abilities that helped them navigate classroom learning as well as student life at IISER.
The roundtable ended on an optimistic note with students and SMC staff discussing possible ideas to collaborate on and various skills students could learn through these opportunities. Some of these included producing content on the research output from IISER Pune’s own labs, picking up writing, scripting, video editing etc. skills to develop a well-rounded portfolio.
Live Sketchnote Creator: K. Devika Babu
UWE’s first workshop explored SDGs and environmental journalism. A key challenge identified was the focus on negativity in environmental reporting, with many stories seen as depressing and contributing to eco-anxiety. Journalists presented “Solutions journalism” as one approach that could lead to more positive stories.
Journalists also highlighted the need to reach the audience first through entertaining them, then through engaging them and only after this would it be possible to educate people about environmental issues.
In the UK, the workshops were held at the project host institute UWE Bristol. In all three workshops, the importance of considering your audience came up and participants pointed out the challenge of knowing who you are reaching. To this end, in the digital skills workshop, they highlighted the need to be able to use and understand digital audience metrics, as well as skills in community building and responding to comments.
The feedback from these participants will feed into the next phase of our project. With thanks to Camille Aubry for the illustrations.
Workshop 1: Sustainable Development Goals, 23 March 2023
Workshop 2: Diversity, Equality & Inclusion, 19 April 2023
Workshop 3: Digital Skills, 19 April 2023
The second workshop focused on equality, diversity, and inclusion, tackling the question ‘How can we make science writing more inclusive?’. Participants pointed out that belonging and seeing yourself in the stories are important aspects to consider, particularly when reaching out to communities that might not normally read or watch science stories. Participants suggested that journalists should consider using less conventional formats to reach new audiences.
There was a strong sense that including a range of different sources in a story would help to tackle misinformation and engage those audiences who have traditionally been turned off science.
In the final workshop, we explored how changes to the digital landscape are affecting science journalists, including the new skills that journalists need to acquire. Participants highlighted how practical skills change over time and the need for journalists to be adaptable and keep on top of new tools. Key skills that journalists now need include: short-form storytelling, knowledge of video editing, podcasting, and data analysis. Finding ways to automate routine tasks was also seen as important.
©2023 IISER Pune with UWE Bristol and Nature India