The Science Journalism Forum runs online from 30 August to 2 September and will present and discuss issues in five languages. This year the conference is fully virtual and aims to strengthen connections and skills, especially in developing countries.
Deborah Blum, director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT, will give a keynote called "12 Lessons for Science Journalists from the Pandemic." She says knowledge changed quickly during the pandemic, which made reporting difficult, and that reporters worked hard to give reliable information.
The KSJ Program supports international journalists with fellowships and free virtual training. A June fact-checking workshop received 400 applications and accepted 200 people from more than 40 countries. Blum will speak on 1 September and warns the field must keep high standards: "Unless we screw it up."
Difficult words
- forum — a meeting to discuss ideas
- virtual — happening online, not in person
- keynote — main speech at a conference
- pandemic — a disease outbreak that spreads worldwide
- fellowship — financial or training support for journalistsfellowships
- fact-checking — checking if information is true
Tip: hover, focus or tap highlighted words in the article to see quick definitions while you read or listen.
Discussion questions
- Have you attended an online conference? What did you like or dislike?
- How could training and fellowships help journalists in developing countries?
Related articles
Inequality and Pandemics: Why Science Alone Is Not Enough
Matthew M. Kavanagh says science can detect viruses and make vaccines fast, but rising inequality makes pandemics worse. He proposes debt relief, shared technology, regional manufacturing and stronger social support to stop future crises.
AI models encode real-world plausibility
Researchers at Brown University tested whether modern AI language models can tell if events are common, unlikely, impossible or nonsensical. They used mechanistic interpretability and found internal patterns that match human judgments in several open-source models.
