Hey, What Did I Miss?
It's been two years of (not) reading science journalism research, but I am back now
Welcome – and I don’t say this lightly – back to TITLE-ABS-KEY(“science journalism“), a newsletter about science journalism research!
When I came up with an idea on how to reboot this newsletter, I confess I did not quite realize that I’d stopped in late 2023, aka two whole years ago.
There's a draft sitting in this Substack, meant for January 2024, about a philosopher unpacking the arguments of another philosopher in what feels like an oddly heated – if publishing a peer-reviewed paper ever counts as ‘heated’ – exchange about values and virtues in science communication.
I never finished that draft, mostly because, like a few other things, science journalism research got swiftly pushed out of my life by an entirely new project; that young lady is now 16 months old.
I am back to reading something other than kids’ picture books, though, and I did come up with an idea on how to streamline the process for this newsletter while picture books still play a major role in my life. It was a bit of a drag, if I’m honest, to scour the databases for papers that would fit the self-defined scope of this newsletter and be interesting enough to review. So I was worried that I’d get caught up in that again and start missing my own deadlines (again).
So I’m doing the most reasonable thing I could think of – I’ve picked one science journalism research book to read and review for 2026.
So – cracking my joints, ravaged by carrying my toddler around – here we go:
This year’s book: Mellor, F. (Ed.). (2024). Insights on Science Journalism (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003326724
Why: I love books, especially books that offer the path of least resistance to resuming this newsletter (which was actually quite nice and enjoyable to write back in what feels like the last century.)
Abstract: Bringing together experts from a range of disciplines, this collection critically examines science journalism, paying special attention to the points of tension that science journalists navigate in their work today.
Faced with the twin crises of climate change and a global pandemic, science journalism has never before been so prominent. This book showcases perspectives that transcend the particulars of the specific news events and outlets studied, in order to provide an overview of the key areas of scholarly interest regarding the nature of science journalism. The volume is organised into three sections: the first provides historical case studies illustrating the demarcation of science journalism from science as science journalism emerged as a recognisable news beat in the twentieth century; the second examines the relationship between science journalists and their sources, particularly scientists, and the mediation of this relationship through organisations, foreign journalism and political constraints; and the final section considers the style and voice of science journalism content. Case studies and original empirical research are compiled from across the globe, including the UK, US, Germany, Vietnam, and Russia, and are synthesised to offer a readable and engaging insight into the beat.
Insights on Science Journalism is recommended reading for advanced students and researchers of science journalism and communication and will also appeal to those working in the fields of science and technology studies and risk communication.
Disclaimer: One of the chapters in the book was written by a colleague and dear friend, Alexandra Borissova Saleh. I will still review it when I get there, but I may use this opportunity – as far as I can remember I’ve never had to review something written by a friend here – a bit more strategically than just “nerd jokes all the way down.”
Conveniently, this book has about as many chapters as I have issues of this newsletter in me (I think) for 2026. We’ll start in February with “Making democracy safe”, a chapter on the development of US science journalism in the 1920s. I haven’t read it just yet but, naturally, I am already bursting at the seams with recent context.
Cheers, and again, welcome back to all of us here.