Global Science Journalism Report by SciDev.Net

Global Science Journalism Report

2.2.7 Solution for a crisis: Philanthro-‐journalism The Economist (9th June 2012) wrote about a new trend towards Philanthro-‐journalism — 'reporters without orders'. This is seen as a way of bridging the crisis of journalism and securing its social mission to provide independent news information under adverse conditions. These are initiatives supported by charitable foundations — so far mainly in US and UK — to support a truly independent and investigative style of journalism. This type of journalism can be risky in world regions where such activities can put a journalist's life in danger — for example, in the Caucasus. Other situations arise in which investigative journalism is squeezed out for reasons of costs. British science writers have discussed this in their 2012 annual conference, under the dilemma of 'explaining' versus 'exposing'. Exposing is costly and requires particular skills. Hitherto such initiatives focused on general journalism to support independent news information as a public good. We explore here the hypothetical situation that such charitable initiatives might also be considered for the field of science communication to stem its growing commercialisation. The field of science news already receives sponsorship in the form of charitable support from institutions such as SciDev.Net, AlphaGalileo, Euro-‐alert and the Science Media Centre. It is quite likely that there is more to come.

Table 10: For or against the sponsorship of a science desk World region: 'sponsorship of a science desk', yes or no? Europe/Russia

Asia/Pacific

Latin America

USA and Canada

46.0% 54.0%

48.8% 51.2%

28.9% 71.1%

35.7% 64.3%

Sub-‐Saharan Northern Africa and Southern and Middle East Africa 50.0% 38.0% 50.0% 62.0%

No: 38% Yes: 62%

Our respondents are split 2 to 1 — 62% (yes) to 38% (no) — on whether there should be sponsorship of science desks or not (Q34, N=483). There is considerable doubt about the wisdom of such a step in the community, and this varies across different world regions. Table 10 shows that a sponsored science desk would be particularly popular in Latin America, USA and Canada; opinions are more divided in other world regions. Europe, Asia and North Africa and the Middle East are particularly dubious about such a move to save science journalism.