As a journalist who is part of a news research team, I am required to produce extensive and in-depth news articles on varied topics like policy, development, human rights, environment and law. Hence I applied to study the Evidence-Based Policy Research Methods course at UNU-MERIT, a research and training institute of the United Nations University which is ‘embedded’ in Maastricht University in the Netherlands. I chose this university because of its affiliation with the UN and also because of the...
One of the most surprising and disruptive developments of the last few years has been the “fake news” phenomenon. It’s now increasingly clear who benefits in terms of power and influence; what’s less clear is why people continue to believe in it, even when “alternative facts” are categorically and repeatedly debunked. Back in 2016, UNU-MERIT was asked by the City of Knowledge in Panama to lead a science reporting workshop for journalists, communications officers and policymakers. We ambitiously ...
“We must build bridges, meet the different actors working in the country by developing different forms of science communication – journalism, dissemination, education – and enrich each other from these differences.” Prof. Daniela Hirschfeld ...
"I was really happy to be there for three days, sitting down not only with researchers but also communicators and journalists. It was a really nice experience to work with them, to understand what are the best ways to communicate with society. Not only our results but also our passion, our emotion and our vulnerability – and the fact that we researchers are also human, so people can identify with us... It also helped us to understand how we can tell stories better visually, not only in terms of ...
For this sixth edition of our Science Reporting Workshop, Reach and Turn, we partnered with UNESCO, the City of Knowledge Foundation, and the National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation — returning to Panama as a side event of the second Latin America and Caribbean Open Science Forum (CILAC). In this edition we focused on the role of academic activism, the use of social media for communicating science, and the road ahead for science communication in Latin America and global...
A guest post by Dr. Lidia Brito, UNESCO Regional Director of Science for Latin America and the Caribbean The declaration signed by the Heads of State and Government and High Representatives, meeting at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, established the adoption of “a historic decision on a comprehensive, far-reaching and people-centred set of universal and transformative Goals and targets.” There, the governments that signed committed themselves to working tirelessly for the full imple...
Global health — from countering misinformation to managing crises — was the focus of our fifth ‘Reach and Turn’ science reporting workshop, held in July 2018. Co-hosted with our sister institute UNU-IIGH in Malaysia, the guiding theme was simple: that ‘you don’t win hearts and minds with science and facts. You win hearts and minds with relationships and trust.’ For this two-day workshop our challenge was to turn these fine words from the Union of Concerned Sci...
The Earth’s climate is changing and human action is the leading cause, according to 97% of peer-reviewed research papers. Yet this ‘climate change consensus’ is increasingly challenged by populist media and politicians, who distort research and cherry pick data. Media may be part of the problem, but it also has a role to play in finding solutions. Through storytelling — as humans have done for thousands of years around campfires — journalists play a crucial role in gettin...
We held our fourth science reporting workshop in a decommissioned particle accelerator in the heart of the Middle East — sharing a stage with veteran BBC presenter Robert Winston before an audience of around 40 researchers and reporters. This was an audience passionate about the scientific method; an audience united for the most part against post-truth populists; and an audience ready to challenge its lecturers. Pointing out essential nuances: for example, that it’s not 97% of scient...
In the world of science reporting, researchers are rightly afraid of being misinterpreted — but journalists are equally frustrated by a lack of clear data to write their articles. One way to break the deadlock is to build trust and partnerships across the ‘media divide’. Partnerships based around data storytelling on everything from human survival to gender equality to environmental challenges. This was the key innovation of our third science reporting workshop, ‘Reach & Turn’, co-hosted with Pa...