NEWS RELEASE
RADIO 4’S INSIDE THE ETHICS COMMITTEE AND DRAMA TIE-IN WIN MEDICAL JOURNALISTS’ ASSOCIATION (MJA) WINTER AWARDS
Sound broadcasting took two awards at the MJA’s 2012 Winter Awards this year. Beth Eastwood’s, producer of Unconscious and Pregnant, in the series Inside the ethics committee, broadcast on Radio 4, last July, won the Explaining medical science (broadcast) Award. The tie-in Afternoon play, Best Interests, by Sasha Hails, produced and directed by Jonquil Panting and broadcast the same day, took the award for the Handling of a medical theme in broadcast drama. (Another Afternoon play – Don’t buy a winter coat, and an episode of Casualty were commended.) Judge Lawrence McGinty, science and medical correspondent with ITN, said ‘ I’m work in television, but I was really impressed at the standard of the radio entries we received. They were captivating. We can easily forget what a powerful medium radio can be. And I gather the whole production was assembled in a couple of days.’
Other Winter Award winners at the presentation, which took place at the King’s Fund, London on January 25, were Matthew Hill for a programme on incompetent agency nursing, broadcast on BBC1’s Inside Out West; Ben Hirschler of Reuters news agency, for Big pharma’s global guinea pigs, on the practice of ‘off-shoring’ clinical trials in pursuit of treatment-naive subjects, and Gareth Iacobucci for Three in four EU doctors get no GP quality tests, in Pulse. These three took the Investigative reporting/scoop Awards for broadcasting, consumer press and professional press respectively.
The MJA’s Winter Awards, unlike those the association runs in the summer, are made on the basis of a single piece of submitted work, selected by a panel of experts. This year they were awards for particular attributes of good medical journalism, some across sectors. The cross-sector Award for an Interview with a health or medical figure was won by Ewan Calloway for Ewen Calloway for Virology: Fighting for a cause, in Nature, and Warren Manger won the Award for Financing Healthcare for 500 still waiting for delayed ops., published in the Warwickshire Telegraph. A second Explaining medical science Award, this for press or online work, was taken by Jerome Burne for Can cutting down on carbohydrates make you live longer? that appeared in the Daily Mail.
Award winners received a cheque for £500 and an inscribed certificate except the Medical theme drama Award which was an inscribed trophy. The MJA Winter Awards were supported by donations from Roche, Merck Sharpe & Dohme and Healthcare at Home.
Notes for editors:
The Medical Journalists’ Association was launched in 1967. It now has some 440 members, including those who edit or contribute to national, provincial and specialist publications, radio, television and online. Membership is open to journalists who work full or part time on health or medical science subjects, as well as to academics or clinicians who write or broadcast in their spare time, and health charity communications staff.
For further information please contact:
Philippa Pigache,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
, or on 01435 868786.
NEWS RELEASE
RADIO 4’S INSIDE THE ETHICS COMMITTEE AND DRAMA TIE-IN WIN MEDICAL JOURNALISTS’ ASSOCIATION (MJA) WINTER AWARDS
Sound broadcasting took two awards at the MJA’s 2012 Winter Awards this year. Beth Eastwood’s, producer of Unconscious and Pregnant, in the series Inside the ethics committee, broadcast on Radio 4, last July, won the Explaining medical science (broadcast) Award. The tie-in Afternoon play, Best Interests, by Sasha Hails, produced and directed by Jonquil Panting and broadcast the same day, took the award for the Handling of a medical theme in broadcast drama. (Another Afternoon play – Don’t buy a winter coat, and an episode of Casualty were commended.) Judge Lawrence McGinty, science and medical correspondent with ITN, said ‘ I’m work in television, but I was really impressed at the standard of the radio entries we received. They were captivating. We can easily forget what a powerful medium radio can be. And I gather the whole production was assembled in a couple of days.’
Other Winter Award winners at the presentation, which took place at the King’s Fund, London on January 25, were Matthew Hill for a programme on incompetent agency nursing, broadcast on BBC1’s Inside Out West; Ben Hirschler of Reuters news agency, for Big pharma’s global guinea pigs, on the practice of ‘off-shoring’ clinical trials in pursuit of treatment-naive subjects, and Gareth Iacobucci for Three in four EU doctors get no GP quality tests, in Pulse. These three took the Investigative reporting/scoop Awards for broadcasting, consumer press and professional press respectively.
The MJA’s Winter Awards, unlike those the association runs in the summer, are made on the basis of a single piece of submitted work, selected by a panel of experts. This year they were awards for particular attributes of good medical journalism, some across sectors. The cross-sector Award for an Interview with a health or medical figure was won by Ewan Calloway for Ewen Calloway for Virology: Fighting for a cause, in Nature, and Warren Manger won the Award for Financing Healthcare for 500 still waiting for delayed ops., published in the Warwickshire Telegraph. A second Explaining medical science Award, this for press or online work, was taken by Jerome Burne for Can cutting down on carbohydrates make you live longer? that appeared in the Daily Mail.
Award winners received a cheque for £500 and an inscribed certificate except the Medical theme drama Award which was an inscribed trophy. The MJA Winter Awards were supported by donations from Roche, Merck Sharpe & Dohme and Healthcare at Home.
Notes for editors:
The Medical Journalists’ Association was launched in 1967. It now has some 440 members, including those who edit or contribute to national, provincial and specialist publications, radio, television and online. Membership is open to journalists who work full or part time on health or medical science subjects, as well as to academics or clinicians who write or broadcast in their spare time, and health charity communications staff.
For further information please contact:
Philippa Pigache,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
, or on 01435 868786.
MJA 2011-12 Winter Awards -- shortlisted entries chosen
The judges for the 2011-12 MJA Winter Awards have selected a shortlist of entries from those submitted in eight categories, below, in alphabetical order.
The eight winners will be announced at a presentation to be held in London, at the King’s Fund, 11, Cavendish Square, on Wednesday, January 25, 2012. A formal invitation will be sent out shortly any minute.
WINTER AWARDS SHORTLIST
Investigative reporting/scoop (broadcast)
Murray Anderson-Wallace, Matthew Hill, Fergus Walsh
Investigative reporting/scoop (consumer print/online)
Ben Hirschler, Warren Manger
Investigative reporting/scoop (professional press/online)
Gareth Iacobucci, Susie Sell
Judges for all three awards – Branwen Jeffreys, Nick Timmins, Andy Coghlan
Financing Healthcare (all sectors)
Warren Manger, Ruth Williams
Judges – Victoria MacDonald, Richard Hoey
Interview of a health or medical figure (all sectors)
Ewen Callaway, Jenny Hudson
Judges – Simon Warne, Justine Hancock
Medical science explained (broadcast)
Beth Eastwood, Fergus Walsh
Judge – Vivienne Parry
Medical science explained (print or online)
Jerome Burne, Laura Donnelly
Judges – Zosia Kmietowitch, Alan Maryon-Davies
Handling a medical theme in broadcast drama or soap opera
Radio 4: Best Interests, BBC 1: Casualty; BBC Radio 4: Don’t Buy a Winter Coat
Judges – Lawrence McGinty, Rob Hicks, Simon Warne
Any queries concerning this short list should be addressed to the Philippa Pigache -- secretary@mjauk.orgMJA 2011-12 Winter Awards -- shortlisted entries chosen
The new generation of online and data-savvy science writers now have a new sandbox to play in, testing new ideas and experimenting with science writing, thanks to newly launched Scientific American 'Creatology' and 'Incubator' blogs.
The Incubator blog aims to "highlight the work of upcoming superstars of science writing, in the hope that they will be seen, noticed, recognized, and most importantly be hired", according to its founder and blog editor at Scientific American Bora Živkovic. It has featured publications from two UK institutions, the University of Aberdeen (Au Science Magazine) and Oxford University (Bang!).
A separate blog, Creatology, gives upcoming science writers an opportunity to experiment with science writing and online media. It will host blogs from science journalism students at a different institution each year. In its first year, Creatology is hosting bloggers from London's City University science journalism programme.
Read more...
Travel grants to attend ESOF2012
Dublin, 11th-15th July 2012
PRESENTATION AND CONDITIONS FOR TRAVEL GRANTS
1. – Purpose
Created by Euroscience, ESOF – Euroscience Open Forum – is the biennial pan-European meeting dedicated to scientific research and innovation. At ESOF meetings leading scientists, researchers, young researchers, journalists, business people, entrepreneurs and innovators, policy makers, science and technology communicators and the general public from all over the world discuss new discoveries and debate the direction that research is taking in the sciences, humanities and social sciences.
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a publisher of high impact scientific and medical information in print and online. NPG publishes journals, online databases, and services across the life, physical, chemical and applied sciences and clinical medicine.
Register to read more...
Winter Awards closing date extended to November 17th - Don't delay; send in your entries now
The MJA Winter Awards were launched at the beginning of October.
Where are your entries? A delightful stream of non-members have applied to join us on the back of sending in their entries to the Awards, but all too few existing member have signed up.
There are eight journalism awards and one for broadcast drama.
Here they are:
Investigative reporting/scoop (consumer press)
Investigative reporting/scoop (specialist/professional press)
Investigative reporting/scoop (TV or radio)
Financing healthcare
Print or online article, or broadcast programme
Interview or profile of a health or medical figure
Print or online article
Medical science explained for the lay person
Print or online feature
Medical science explained for the lay person
Broadcast programme
Best handling of a health issue in a TV or radio drama or soap opera
The organisers have decided to extend the deadline to November 17, hoping to attract more entries.
Do get in touch with Deanna Wilson now if you think you have something to enter.
You can find out all about what you must send in, and where on the special MJA Awards site: www.mjaawards.com
DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, NOW -- contact Deanna Wilson.. Email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
MJA Awards Booklet, 2011 now posted and available
A pdf of this year's Awards Booklet has now been posted on the MJA website. This is the MJA's salute to those whose achievements the association has recognised this year, as well as a thank you to all those who have helped us in one way or another. It's one of the few things we have to show who and what the MJA is and does and is useful when talking to outsiders wishing either to join, support, or be associated with us.
It's much better in print, and if you would like a printed copy there are some spares. Contact me, Philippa as below, confirming your postal mailing address, and I will send one. If you know an individual, association interested in knowing about us, I can also send the booklet, plus a copy of the latest MJA News, also distributed this week.
The MJA needs to grow, so if you would like copies to show to colleagues and talk up belonging to the association, please ask me for them.
Many thanks -- PHILIPPA (Pigache, MJA hon sec)
Fairfield, Cross in Hand, Healthfield, East Sussex, TN21 0SH.
Phone: 014354 868786
Now that science reporters have seen their historical position as the primary conveyors of scientific information to non-specialists eroded, what roles are left for them to play?
That's a central issue that myself and my American University colleague Matt Nisbet explored in an article published recently in Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, which reported the views of eleven science journalists, in the United States and the United Kingdom, about how their professional roles and working practices have been changing in the digital age.
We argued that journalists are now operating in what we called a new "science-media ecosystem" where organizations that were previously sources of science news -- including scientific publishers and societies, scientists, science centers and science interest groups -- are now producing original content, often using journalistic methods of presentation, directly for non-specialist audiences.
In this digital space, the functions and practices of science reporters have shifted, a shift driven also by the wider economic and organizational pressures on journalism generally, a shift that can be seen in four emerging practices for science reporters.
Read more...
ABSW is planning to strengthen ties with its twin association — the Uganda Science Journalists Association (USJA) — hoping to help train science journalists in Uganda. This partnership is the result of the World Federation of Science Journalists' (WFSJ) Science journalism COOPeration (SjCOOP) project, which aims to develop science journalism in Africa and the Arab world. USJA has been participating in this project as an ABSW 'twin' since it joined WFSJ in 2007.
Connie St Louis, ABSW chair, says that Ugandan delegates will attend the UK Conference of Science Journalists in 2012 where they will get additional training and pick up more skills. They will also get an opportunity to say what they need, and what they would like to do in terms of partnering with the ABSW.
William Odinga, USJA chairman says: "There is a lot of experience in ABSW from which USJA stands to gain. If the partnership is strengthened, especially through sharing of information, certainly the rich knowledge of British science writers will help nurture science journalists in Uganda where the concept of science journalism is relatively new."
Read more...
The Wellcome Trust's inaugural Science Writing Prize was awarded tonight (12 October) at a ceremony at the Wellcome Collection in London.
The winners were Penny Sarchet, science journalist and doctoral student at the University of Oxford (in the professional scientists/postgraduate level category) and Tess Shellard, a charity sector worker (in the non-professional scientists/undergraduate category).
Sir Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, said that some 800 submissions were received. Science is not boring, but it can be communicated in a boring way, he told the attendees, adding that the entries show that science can also be communicated in a very interesting way.
Read more...
|
|
