A couple of fine bloggers, to whit GrrlScientist and Hsien Hsien Lei, have said that they have a hard time covering science because they cannot get access to embargoed sources. For those who don’t know about this sort of thing, press releases, including many science stories, get to journalists with an embargo: a time before which nothing should be published. The idea is to give the inky wretches time to understand the story, contact sources, get quotes and write up their piece. Embargoes can be very strictly enforced, by blocking a miscreant’s access to future releases, to ensure a level playing field for all. But it isn’t level if serious bloggers, who aren’t paid-up journalists, are excluded.
Hsien Hsien Lei has been getting some solid support from her employer and sundry other bloggers, so maybe what I have to say is irrelevant. For my money, the best route in would be to register with professional bodies such as the National Association of Science Writers or one of the “two dozen journalist organizations in north america†that her boss cites. Maybe the Association of British Science Writers would be more welcoming. (You can say I sent you, but my name has probably been forgotten.) I’d also not be above taking advantage of the system. There must be people Hsien Hsien knows who do have access. Anonymous remailers being what they are, I would imagine it would be possible to share embargoed releases. It happens all the time in old fashioned newsrooms.
Ok, I know, there are matters of principle at stake. But pragma beats principle every day.
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Of course what you have to say is relevant!! Thank you so much. I am working behind the scenes to get access but still wanted to bring attention to it. Wish me luck! :)
Good journalists do not need access to embargoed stories. They have other ways of finding out what is happening.
Indeed, the whole embargo process is there to benefit the journals, and to ensure that everyone covers their papers on the same day. Science writers collude because it is a way of persuading a sceptical news editor that the “competition” will cover a story.
Embargoes are for sloppy and unimaginative hacks whose idea of research is sitting in front of a screen all day.
Bloggers should deliberately stay away form the system. Go to meetings, talk to people, read journals that do not have huge PR machines. Then write.
“Go to meetings, talk to people, read journals that do not have huge PR machines. Then write.”
They can’t, they’re in their jim-jams.
But it isn’t just the journals that operate an embargo; as you noted elsewhere, it often involves market-moving news. I agree about it being partly for the journals, to ensure they get covered, but it is also to enable good coverage, don’t you think?
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