The State of Science Journalism | MIT Knight Science Journalism

The MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellows made their annual visit to MBL on October 23. They went out on the Gemma, toured labs and the MBLWHOI Library, and heard research talks including a presentation by MBL Director Nipam Patel, as described below. This article was written by Usha Lee McFarling, new director of the MIT Knight Science Journalism Program.

"It’s worse than Covid.” Those weren’t words I expected to hear about the current climate for science writing, especially not from an emergency room physician. The comment came from Jeremy Faust, MD, who in addition to being a physician is the editor-in-chief of Medscape Today and the author of the popular Substack newsletter “Inside Medicine,” where he writes about the toll current policies are taking on science, research, and public health. 

Faust was speaking at an event KSJ convened earlier this month called “Covering Crisis: Science Reporting in an Age of Turmoil, Fear, and Data Erasure,” held to discuss the extreme and difficult environment science writers are navigating as they struggle to cover the rush of news coming out of the new administration and personally process the devastating effects some new policies and cuts are having. 

“It’s draining. It’s incredibly sad … We know people are dying right now,” Sara Reardon, a current KSJ fellow who covered the administration for Science, said at the event about cuts to U.S. AID and HIV programs in Africa. Read rest of the article here.

Source: The State of Science Journalism: A Note From the New KSJ Director | MIT Knight Science Journalism