Saturday 10th October: My Media Roundup by Charlotte Barker, Texere Publishing

October 10, 2020

Every Saturday morning, we invite a publishing pro to put together their top media links. This week’s guest editor is Charlotte Barker.

Charlotte is Associate Content Director and Editor of The Cannabis Scientist magazine at Cheshire-based science publisher Texere.

You can find Charlotte on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Charlotte says:

"I’m an unabashed science nerd so I've included a couple of science-related stories, but I like to think there is something for everyone here: sexism, newsletters, storytelling, and, erm, grammar (more interesting than it sounds, I promise!)."

I launched a newsletter this year (about cannabis science – yes, it’s actually about science; no, I don't get free samples) and it’s been a real learning curve. It’s a bit like writing a magazine in miniature every week; that can sometimes feel relentless, but it’s also one of the most fun parts of my job! I especially love the direct connection to the audience and this article by Ann Handley has some easy tips to make newsletters feel more personal.

This report, commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, details the marginalization of women in COVID-19 reporting. The International Women’s Media Foundation analyzed coverage of the pandemic and found that women appeared even less (as experts, commentators, or protagonists) in news about coronavirus than in regular reporting – for every woman quoted, there were at least three men. If you’d like to help change that, this database of women scientists might be a good starting point.

With COVID-19 dominating the news (and layoffs in many news organizations), journalists from all sorts of beats are turning their hands to stories on epidemiology, vaccine trials, and drug approvals. To help those tackling science topics for the first time, Shira Feder asked 18 experienced health and science journalists for their lessons learned. Eric Boodman’s reminder to give yourself “permission to sound stupid” and be “deeply, genuinely, little-kid curious” when interviewing scientists is great advice for beginners and veterans alike!

Shirish Kulkarni proposes a major overhaul of how we communicate news, including throwing out the classic “inverted pyramid” structure and applying the principles of storytelling to create real engagement with the audience. I've been thinking a lot about storytelling lately, so I'm looking forward to Kulkarni's forthcoming (virtual) lecture for the Reuters Institute.

I saw this article in a Twitter thread started by journalist Sirin Kale, in which she confessed her ignorance of grammatical terminology. Like most people who attended a UK state school in the 1990s, I received very few formal grammar lessons – so I was interested to hear that the evidence supports this unstructured approach (Mrs Jacobs was right after all!). In fact, rule-bound grammar teaching (now back in favor in UK schools) may turn kids off writing.

This article is aimed at science and technology event organizers, but I suspect it will be relevant to multiple sectors. It highlights the Conference Diversity Distribution Calendar, which gives a quick estimate of the minimum number of women speakers you need to recruit if you want to accurately reflect the makeup of your field. It can also be applied to other underrepresented groups.

If you would like to guest edit a future edition of My Media Roundup, simply reply to this email.