Colin

As a journalist one must avoid actual and potential conflicts of interest. By its nature the job involves critical reporting, and for that you must be independent of your subjects.

For example, if one is writing for a B2B publication on, say, the development of a novel nanomaterial with commercial potential, with academic researchers patenting their discovery and working with venture capitalists, then as a journalist you cannot then engage in corporate public relations copywriting and/or marketing within that particular science and technology sector. This can create a problem for freelance journalists with expertise in said sector, as in many cases freelancers supplement journalistic income with commercial copywriting and editing.

And it's not just commercial conflicts of interest. Part of my work in recent years has included space science and engineering research and policy consulting. Some of it is with commercial concerns, and some governmental. But whichever clients I'm dealing with, I must avoid working as a journalist in the space sector. Or at least in journalistic reporting and investigation; opinion wibbling is just about acceptable, as long as affiliations are declared for all to see. School science outreach combined with journalism should not present a problem, but you must look at it on a case by case basis.

As an example of the problems you can run into, recall that in recent years there has been discussion on this list about EurekAlert! de-recognising journalists, and removing their access to embargoed press releases from AAAS journals such as Science. I was myself expelled from the EurekAlert! database, on the grounds that I do not work exclusively as a journalist. This policy, while in some ways understandable, puts freelancers at a commercial disadvantage, and is therefore discriminatory.

Francis

On 13 Mar 12, at 13:39, Colin Stuart wrote:

''For ethical reasons one cannot do both science journalism and public outreach and/or marketing. At least not in the same areas of science communication.''

Could you elaborate on that Francis? What's the problem with doing both? I get the marketing aspect but not why you can't be a science journalist and present to the schools/public.

Best wishes,

Colin Stuart (http://www.colinstuart.net)

Freelance science communicator, writer and broadcaster.

Freelance Astronomer working for Royal Observatory, Greenwich

Follow me on Twitter: @skyponderer

On 12 Mar 2012, at 20:11, Francis Sedgemore <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

On 12 Mar 12, at 19:50, Michael Kenward wrote:

Interesting news though. Someone earlier suggested that it is hard to find
"PEST" jobs. This announcement, and the many others I see here, suggest that
it is a lot easier to get into that domain than to get in science
journalism.


Indeed. With media redundancies, and freelance work drying up, I am no longer able to make a sustainable living from science journalism. I used to, albeit in the B2B sector, which by definition has a low public profile. But no longer, and I'm left considering a move to the dark side, or the abandonment of science altogether. For ethical reasons one cannot do both science journalism and public outreach and/or marketing. At least not in the same areas of science communication.

There are relatively many opportunities in "PEST". The problem is that the non-university jobs tend to pay peanuts, and many appear to be aimed at young graduates. Only the law forbids employers from explicitly saying so. These new positions at Kings College will no doubt be on the union-negotiated RA and academic scales, where the pay is these days quite respectable, and often considerably greater than in the private sector.

Francis

--
Dr Francis Sedgemore
journalist and science writer
www.sedgemore.com

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-- 
Dr Francis Sedgemore
journalist and science writer
www.sedgemore.com

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