Check this out. Maybe you should go?
(My Beloved said I've been brown-nosing this professor; the only reason I can call it "networking" is that it's done over email. "Brown-nosing," "networking,"etc., labels be-damned, this is exactly the kind of hat tip that leads to Big Things.)
Turns out, there's a whole group of scientists interested in communicating with the public and a whole group of journalists interested in speaking "science-ese." Apparently, these two factions found each other and formed the National Association of Science Writers.
The annual meeting is in CT this year and, what's more, they're offering travel fellowships. Unfortunately, the deadline for fellowship applications was today and, having just learned of 1) the organization and 2) the meeting, I had little time to prepare. However, every good journalist knows how to cope with tight deadlines, so I sent off my Student Application and Statement of Interest this morning. Just keep your fingers crossed that joining the organization and applying for a fellowship on the same day is legit!
The workshop titles hold the promise of enlightening my research question (How should scientists communicate in order to affect public change?) by offering issues I'd not considered, such as social media, science literacy, but also issues that are central to my thesis (e.g. statistical accuracy in reporting).
I'm very excited about going and hope the money comes through. Student membership is a mere $35, but "regular" membership requires peer-review of FIVE published pieces for the layperson and sponsorship by TWO established regular members. That strikes me as quite a significant hurdle. Imagine the experience and network the "regular" attendees could share!
Reporting on one of the workshop events is part of the package in accepting a fellowship. I wonder if I could count that towards my 5 published pieces....
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