Science Communication and the News Media:
Workshops for Journalists and Scientists

The communications challenges facing journalists and scientists in reporting science news to the public were addressed in a series of national workshops sponsored by the Metcalf Institute and funded by the National Science Foundation.

In each of the six workshops, prominent scientists and journalists were invited to discuss the barriers to communicating science, in particular climate change, and ways to effect change in reporting on climate science in the press. Summary reports are available here for each workshop.

Communicating on Climate Change: An Essential Resource for Journalists, Scientists, and Educators (available for download in pdf format, or order a copy) is the final product of the workshops. It describes the challenges facing journalists and scientists in communicating climate change to the public and ways that these challenges might be met.

Additional information on the project is available at www.environmentwriter.org, the website of Metcalf Institute's Environment Writer newsletter for environmental journalists. Science Communication and the News Media Workshops were supported by NSF's Division of Atmospheric Sciences, Paleoclimate Program with other funding from the EPA Office of Atmospheric Programs, NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science.