Author: SJAA

In response to a recent query from a university science student about how to start getting bylines, SJAA’s members offered a range of helpful suggestions:

• approach the university media/PR office and ask if you could do some writing for them. Universities produce a lot of content for their website and newsletters, and that can be an opportunity for students to try their hand at writing. I know university comms units are a lot more beefed up these days than when I went to uni, but it definitely can’t hurt to stick your head in their door and ask if you can do some work experience/writing for them.
• look at some of the scientific societies and the newsletters they produce, and contact them to ask if you can write for them. Depending on what you’re interested in, there’s orgs like the Australian Society for Medical Research, Australian Society for Microbiology, Genetics Society of Australasia etc. The British Medical Journal also has a student section that you could pitch an idea to or contact.
• There aren’t any specific courses in Australia on science journalism, but there are some online ones you might want to take a look at.
• Read science writing (and other journalism!). Like all the time. Find the science writers that you enjoy. Don’t try to emulate them, but pick apart their stories and what they do and try to pin down what you enjoy it. You’ll be a much better writer.
• Contact writers/editors you like and say ‘hey’. Say you liked something they wrote. Tweet at them. Email them. Say ‘hey’ at conferences. Be on their radar. The industry is small and often feels very much about who you know so why not be in that conversation?
• Write. Start a blog and develop your style. Write about things you like. No one will read it. That’s not the point. Point is just to develop and see if you really enjoy the process enough to want to do it all the time.
• I started writing when I was still in research – a lot of volunteer writing for blogs and also for the lab (not too deadline-driven, flexible, good way to practice). I also did a lot of unpaid internships, which were all great experiences but I wouldn’t recommend that widely as it was a real struggle financially. What I found was really helpful was that I just kept on writing/ pitching for practice, and doing a lot of institutional writing – there’s a nice constant style/ tone you develop – which helps to get more gigs when you get clips.
• I started writing for my university magazine! They didn’t have a science section, or it was verryyyy limited when I was a student at unimelb, so I helped them develop that. Then I got the itch and took a bunch of unpaid internships, which is less than ideal and obviously a privilege. Otherwise, I would say if you want to be a writer the best thing you can do is just start writing. Even if it means starting your own Medium account that no one follows (which I did). It helps when you start pitching to be able to show editors you know how to do what they want.
• Add yourself on the Young Australian Writers Facebook page page and SJAA. You’re more likely to be accepted if someone is actively looking for pitches. I would also recommend joining the university newspaper. Most have them and it allows you to do whatever you want, but not be exploited by someone making way too much money and paying you for exposure. I also think that Uni media teams are still good ways of getting science comms practice.
• I was working in science research at the time so I started writing features for the university media team, as well as newsletters for related research organisations, covering their conferences on Twitter and volunteering at the Australian Museum writing blogs as part of their science festival. I’d also say going along to science writing festivals, talks, events etc. such as Quantum Words really helped because meeting people in person made it slightly less daunting to pitch them ideas later!
• I was still working in science when I started out, so one thing I could do is write for The Conversation. I also wrote my own blog, which, as others have pointed out, is not about getting views or readers, but about practice and building up a collection of ‘clips’ that will help to convince an editor that you do, in fact, know how to write.

The Science Journalists Association of Australia is proud to announce the winners of the 2022 SJAA Grants program.

First up, a heartfelt ‘thank you’ again to the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas for supporting this year’s grants program, and enabling us to expand the program to six grants, each worth $1500, as well as offer a small stipend for mentors.

The winners of the two student/early-career reporting grants are Manuela Callari for a story on underwater wireless, and Petra Stock for a story on wind farms.

The winners of the two independent reporting grants are Carly Cassella for a story on lyrebirds, and Fiona McMillan for a story on oasis ecosystems. The judges also awarded a discretionary third reporting grant to Clare Watson for a story on relocating threatened species.

And finally, the professional development grant also goes to Clare Watson to help her get to the 2023 World Conference of Science Journalists in Medellín, Colombia.

A huge thank you to the grant judging committee, who also took extra time to provide feedback to every single one of the grant applicants. And commiserations to those of you who didn’t get a grant this year, but start working on your ideas for next year’s grants!

Thursday 23 June, 7.30pm-8.30pm AEST

In 1999, a high-school student in Arizona died while participating in a phase one clinical trial of a gene therapy that, it was hoped, might cure him of a rare inherited metabolic disorder. 
The case sparked a storm of recriminations when it was discovered the lead investigator and his university had substantial – and undeclared – financial stakes in the company developing the treatment.
The tragedy shone a much-needed light on financial conflicts of interest in scientific and medical research. But despite organisations and institutions around the world developing policies and guidelines on the issue, the problem of conflicts of interest in science persists today.
These financial ties in science and scientists are a key issue for science journalists, but there is little guidance on how and when such conflicts of interest should be considered, disclosed or investigated.
But science journalists themselves are not exempt from conflicts of interest. Whether it’s a paid-for trip to visit a remote research facility, an institutional residency, or a freelance side hustle writing for a pharmaceutical company, journalists must also increasingly manage their own conflicts. 
In this free online panel event, the Science Journalists Association of Australia is delighted to welcome four experts share their experiences, insights and wisdom on these important questions.

• Investigative science journalist Hristio Boytchev, whose work uncovering medical researchers’ undisclosed financial ties with industry won him the European Science Journalist of the Year award in 2021;
• Research scientist Associate Professor Barbara Mintzes from the University of Sydney, whose work focuses on pharmaceutical policy and the effects of pharmaceutical promotion on the prescribing and use of medicines; 
• Freelance science journalist, editor and film-maker Wilson da Silva, whose work has won numerous awards;
• Nature Asia-Pacific bureau chief Nicky Phillips, also previously science editor at the Sydney Morning Herald.

The event will be moderated by freelance science journalist and SJAA president Bianca Nogrady, and will be recorded.

When: Thursday 23 June, 7.30pm-8.30pm AEST

Where: Online

Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_C7JpbcEgTlWhCWzGdyT94A

There’s one week left to apply for one of the six $1500 grants being offered by the Science Journalists Association of Australia to support SJAA members to realise a science reporting project in print, online, audio or visual, or for professional development. Entries are due by 5pm, 31 May 2022.

This year, the SJAA grants program is offering six reporting or professional development grants worth $1500 each, for student/early career and established science journalists, thanks to the generous support of the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas.

The grant program aims to foster the career development of Australian science journalists, to encourage and support excellence in science reporting, and to build capacity in the Australian science journalism community.

The grants will support SJAA members to undertake a science reporting project – print, audio, visual, or online – or professional development opportunity that would otherwise be difficult for them to do because of financial or time constraints. More information and application details here.

At the Eureka Prize award ceremony on 7 October 2021, SJAA members Dyani Lewis, Carl Smith and Joel Werner took home prizes for their extraordinary science journalism.

Freelance science journalist Dr Dyani Lewis was awarded the Finkel Foundation Eureka Prize for Long-Form Science Journalism for her Cosmos feature ‘Role Models in a Time of Pandemic’, which explores how the little-known field of mathematical disease modelling was behind pandemic policies that upended life as we knew it.

ABC science journalists Carl Smith and Joel Werner are part of the team at ABC Science that won the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Science Journalism for their Patient Zero podcast. This series tells stories of disease outbreaks: where they begin, why they happen and how we found ourselves in the middle of one.

And congratulations also to CNET science editor Dr Jackson Ryan, who was shortlisted for both these awards.

The Science Journalists Association of Australia is delighted to announce the three winners of our inaugural independent reporting grants program.

The SJAA judging panel was thrilled with the breadth of ideas and stories pitched by members across the country for SJAA’s inaugural grants program – funded for members by members. 

It was especially impressed with and excited by the quality and clarity of the proposals from early career and student applicants. The future of science journalism in Australia is in good hands!

Lydia Hales won the inaugural Independent reporting grant, enabling her to travel from Tasmania to Newcastle to explore how Australian scientists are freezing reptiles for posterity.

Clare Watson was also awarded a grant for her superb pitch to seek out seagrass near Port Pirie. The Wollongong-based freelance science journalist will travel to the mining town to explore the cascading impacts of climate change and industrial pollution through the lens of a little-known underwater meadow and the people living nearby.

Recent journalism graduate Jordyn Beazley from Melbourne was awarded the student or early-career reporting grant. She’ll be exploring the sounds of the Murray River for an audio project – to understand what they can tell us about the river’s health.

The $750 SJAA grants enable journalists to seek out projects that they’d otherwise be unable to report on. 

Alongside the grant funds, the winners will also have access to one-on-one mentoring and support from within the SJAA community.

We’re proud and delighted to launch our grants program for 2021, which will provide two grants for a student/early-career and an established science journalist to support them to undertake an independent reporting project.

The grants are worth $750, and come with the option of mentoring. Entries are now open to all SJAA members, and details are here.

Goodbye and good riddance 2020? Sure, it’s been a roundly crappy year on so many fronts: bushfires, COVID-19, climate, politics, toilet paper shortages. But it isn’t all bad. 

For one thing, 2020 brought 58 people together as inaugural members of the Science Journalists Association of Australia. Thank you for being a part of this organisation’s first year, for participating in events, chatting and sharing on Slack, helping each other out, celebrating each other’s achievements, and making SJAA what we really hoped it would be when the founding committee first started sketching it out.

In 2020, SJAA is proud to have delivered six online events this year, including panels on Freedom of Information requesting, longform science journalism, covering COVID-19 and how to pitch editors. 

What’s coming in 2021? The big news is SJAA is launching a grants program at the start of the year. We’re offering two $750 grants for members – one for student/early-career, and one for established writers – to support a science journalism reporting project with both money and mentoring.

Thank you to the founding committee of Dyani Lewis, Natasha Mitchell, Jonathan Webb, Stephen Pincock, Sara Phillips, Carl Smith, Nicky Phillips, Wilson da Silva and Fran Molly for putting so much time and thought into creating this organisation, for caring so much about science journalists and science journalism in Australia, and for being just a great bunch of people.

Thank you to SJAA’s first elected committee of Neena Bhandari, Ruby Prosser Scully, Michelle Starr, Sara Phillips, Carl Smith, Nicky Phillips, Dyani Lewis, Fran Molloy and Natasha Mitchell for building and nurturing SJAA through a challenging year, and making this organisation so valuable, relevant and exciting.

If you’re interested in being part of this great group, become a member!

Bianca Nogrady
President.

The Science Journalists Association of Australia is delighted to have been accepted as a member organisation of the World Federation of Science Journalists, joining more than 60 national, regional, and international science journalism associations which represent over 10,000 science journalists around the world.