Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Compiling a list of reporters who cover #microbiology stories well; suggestions wanted

Well, I got asked recently for examples of reporters who cover microbiology related stories well.  A few examples came to mind.

But before I biased anyone with those I thought I would snoop around the web and see if anyone else had written about this.  And in googling around I discovered something I probably should have known about - the American Society for Microbiology gives out a Microbiology Public Communication Award.  The list of past winners is very helpful. However, the ASM site does not have a lot of detail so I have tried to compile it here:

Year Recipient Highlighted story Publisher
2010 Debora MacKenzie An End to Flu? New Scientist
2009 Ken Armstrong, Michael Berens Culture of Resistance Seattle Times
2008 Martin Enserink, Leslie Roberts Combating Malaria Science Magazine
2007 Kenneth Weiss, Usha McFarling Altered Oceans Los Angeles Times
2006 David Baron, Clark Boyd, Katy Clark, Orlando de Guzman The Forgotten Plague: Malaria Public Radio International’s “The World”
2005 Leslie Roberts Polio: The Final Assault? Science Magazine
2004 Martin Enserink, Dennis Normile SARS In China Science Magazine
2003 John Fauber, Mark Johnson “A New Kind of Killer” and “The Hand of Man” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
2002 Jonathon Knight Meet the Herod Bug Nature
2001 Janet Ginsburg Bio Invasion Business Week
2000 Susan Okie Science Races to Stem TB’s Threat The Washington Post
1999 Richard Monastersky The Rise of Life on EarthNational Geographic
1998 Rachel Nowak, Ian Anderson Australia’s Giant Lab New Scientist
1997 Andy Coghlan Slime City: Where Bugs Build Skyscrapers New Scientist
1996 David BaroLiving on Earth: Microbial Diversity National Public Radio

Obviously there are many other great journalists dealing with microbial topics out there. But this is a pretty interest list.  Most of the others I know about I know through their blogs.  Examples of reporters who's microbiology writing I tend to like include:
There are also many microbiology bloggers out there who are great.  For now I am focusing on those who do more traditional reporting (e.g., writing for newspapers or magazines).   

So - I am now asking - do people have any other reporters who have done good work on microbiology related topics to recommend out there?  I am certain I am missing a few.

-----------------------
Some additional names coming from out there in the internets (with some links to example articles):

1 comment:

  1. Some comments from Twitter

    Tara C. Smith ‏@aetiology
    @phylogenomics Missing @HelenBranswell on that list, great flu & other micro reporting.

    Nicholas Kelley, PhD ‏@kelle569
    @phylogenomics what about Bob Roos or Lisa Schnirring reporters for @cidrap all they cover is ID stuff.

    Nicholas Kelley, PhD ‏@kelle569
    Second that. RT @aetiology: @phylogenomics Missing @HelenBranswell on that list, great flu & other micro reporting.

    ReplyDelete

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