This short history of international
science writing organizations was written by ISWA President James
Cornell for the massive "Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
Communication" to be published in July 2010 by Sage
Publications. According to editor Susanna Priest, the two-volume,
600,000-word tome will be priced at $395, which assumes the main
audience will be libraries rather than individuals. Several other
ISWA members served as contributors and/or editors for this project.
It has been suggested that the bug-like tendency
of science
journalists to swarm, or as Philippe
Marcotte and Florian Sauvageau describe it, their
“propensity for
grouping and mingling,” stems from their sense of isolation
– from other types
of reporters and even more so from their sources. Neither fish nor
fowl,
science writers tend to be a breed apart, often the only one of their
kind in a
news room – or, in the developing world, sometimes in an entire
country.
Surprisingly, then, the creation
of mutual support systems
for science writers is a relatively recent phenomenon.
Although the first national group – the
German Association of Science and Technical Journalists – was
founded in 1929,
followed by the formation of the U.S. National Association of Science
Writers
(NASW) in 1934, the majority of the 55 national and regional
associations
counted in a 2007 survey published by the World Federal of Science
Journalists
(WFSJ) were formed since the mid-1970s, with many in the developing
world
created only in the last decade.
Internationalization
of Science Journalism
The rapid and luxurious bloom of science journalism
worldwide in the late 20th Century mirrored in part the
transformation of science research into an international endeavor. As the world became increasingly
interconnected, it was clear that issues such as climate change, water
shortages, sustainable development, and pandemics knew no borders. Because global problems demanded global
solutions, many science journalists hoped to establish effective global
networks for sharing vital information, ideally though a world
“union” or “federation”
of the many new national groups.
The first step toward internationalism was
creation of the
Ibero-American Association of Science Journalism (AIPC) in 1969 by the
Spanish
writer Manuel Calvo Hernando. The AIPC
linked a score of national associations in Latin America (some of them
extremely small) with a base group in Spain.
In addition to promoting exchanges of
journalists and conducting training programs, the AIPC sponsored a
series of
bi-hemispheric “congresses” that would set the model for
future international
conferences. Indeed, at the 1977 congress in Madrid, the Venezuelan delegation
proposed
creation of a “World Union of Science Journalists.” Although an international organizing
committee was formed and some potential funders, including the United
Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), were
contacted,
this first formal expression of the “world union” concept
went little further
due to political, economic, and linguistic limitations.
Actually, the idea of
a world union had come up even earlier
– and was dismissed – during the creation of the first
truly global such
association, albeit one made up of individual journalists, the
International
Science Writers Association (ISWA). In
1966, a group of senior science writers and editors (among them Gordon
Rattray
Taylor of the BBC, John Maddox of Nature, and Dennis Flanagan
of Scientific
American) met in London
to discussed the benefits of forming a loose network.
The next year, using the occasion of the
World’s Fair in Montreal (EXPO 67), this core group, joined by
several other
prominent writers (including Robert Cowen of the Christian Science
Monitor,
Howard Lewis of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and Fred Poland
of the Montreal
Star), met to write and approve a draft constitution, to elect
officers,
and to debate, and finally dismiss, a motion to create a
“federation of
associations” in favor of what ISWA would become (and remains
today): an
“organization of individual membership.” Maddox became the
first president.
For the next 30 years, ISWA would
provide science
journalists around the world, particularly those living and working in
countries without national associations, connections with the wider
world of
science communication. Initially serving
a largely Anglo-American-Canadian group of journalists who lived or
worked
abroad (including the notable expatriate Sir Arthur C. Clarke of Sri Lanka),
ISWA actively sought out young journalists from emerging nations in the
1980s. Today, the organization has
some
200 members in 25 countries, and through its website, ISWA offers them
information about jobs, training, and educational opportunities, as
well as
assists in planning, organizing, and conducting workshops on science
communication.
A
World Union?
While ISWA has remained an organization of
individuals, the
concept of an organization made up of associations still resonated with
many
writers. In 1971, Giancarlo Massini of Italy’s
Corriere della Sera persuaded a group
of like-minded European science journalists to form what was to become
a truly
multinational organization, although a purely regional one. Out of
their
meetings was created the European Union of Science Journalists’
Associations
(EUSJA).
The original union included just seven
associations, but
following the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, there was an upsurge
of
interest from Eastern European countries, all of whom now play an
active role
in EUSJA’s activities, which include exchange visits between
member countries
and training for young journalists. Member countries (as of March 2009)
are
Albania, Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece,
Germany,
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia,
Slovenia, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. EUSJA
has its headquarters in Strasbourg
at Euroscience – where it has its own secretariat.
Those forerunners of a “world union”
– EUSJA, ISWA and AIPC
– would all play significant roles in organizing the first
“world conference of
science journalists,” and eventually, if somewhat painfully, the
formation of
an actual world federation. But despite
these contributions, that first conference was essentially the result
of one
man’s vision and persistence.
Arthur Bourne, a British science writer,
world-traveler, and
occasional consultant to the United Nations, had tried for nearly two
decades
to organize a truly “international conference” of
journalists from all parts of
the world—and particularly from the emerging nations of Africa
and Asia.
Finally, in late 1990, Bourne, by then president of EUSJA, persuaded
UNESCO to
sponsor the first world conference in Tokyo.
With generous assistance from Japanese business and philanthropic
groups, some
50 journalists from 35 countries were invited to meet with
approximately 100 of
their Japanese colleagues in November 1992.
Despite the great success of the Tokyo meeting,
its declaration
of the need for a world association, and the continued efforts by
Bourne and
others to organize a follow-up, a second world conference would not be
realized
for another seven years. Held in Budapest in July
1999,
this conference reflected the changes in science journalism brought
about by
new technologies, as well as the changes in European society brought
about the
collapse of the old Soviet bloc.
The organizer and host of the Budapest
meeting, Istvan Palugyai, science editor for the newspaper Nepszabadsag,
had been a leading proponent of the federation concept at the Tokyo meeting. As such, he led the effort to write “The
Declaration of Budapest,” a set of eight recommendations for
UNESCO aimed at
improving the state (and status) of science journalism worldwide. A key recommendation was the formation of a
“world federation” bringing national and regional
associations under an
umbrella organization that, among other things, could convene
international
conferences on a regular basis.
The next milestone was 2001, when Japanese science
writer
and teacher Kenji Makino organized an international mini-meeting on
science and
technology reporting at Tokyo’s
then new “innovation museum.” The
meeting closed with still another call for a “world
federation,” but the
accompanying draft constitution caused some controversy because the
signatories
to the document did not necessarily officially represent their national
associations.
The third world conference would be convened
within a year
at the Universidade do Vale do Paraiba in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil.
Any lingering doubts about the usefulness of
an “umbrella group of associations” and concern over its
awkward introduction
in Tokyo
seemed
to have disappeared by this time. The
result was a formal announcement creating a World Federation of Science
Journalists (WFSJ), complete with a set of officers and a draft
constitution
that would be approved at the next conference,
held in Montreal in 2004.
By April 2007 and the fifth world conference in Melbourne, Australia,
the WFSJ was a well-established entity, with some two dozen member
organizations, a sustaining budget, and active outreach and
mentoring projects for reporters in
the developing world. The sixth conference was held in London in the
summer of 2009, by which time
the WFSJ represented 40 associations of science and technology
journalists
around the world. Its flagship project
is SjCOOP, which
encourages partnerships between
well-established science writing associations and newly formed ones in
the
developing world. One highly successful
partnership has been that between the Arab Association of Science
Journalists,
representing writers from the Middle East and North Africa, and the
NASW in the
US.
One other “world union of
science journalists” also deserves
mention. The
International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ) was formed
in Dresden, Germany,
in 1993, and Darryl D’Monte, Chairperson of the Forum of
Environmental
Journalists of India, was elected its first president.
The federation includes as members both
associations and individual environmental journalists representing some
88
countries.
The IFEJ is a founding member of
the Com+ initiative
(Communicators for Sustainable Development), together with the World
Bank,
Global Environment Facility, InterPress Service, Conservation
International,
BBC, DevTV, Television Trust for the Environment, National
Geographic
and a number of other partners. With
InterPress Service, IFEJ runs an occasional feature service on
sustainable
development issues, among many other initiatives.
James Cornell
International Science Writers
Association
Further Readings
Cornell, James. 1999.
“Report: Second World Conference of
Science Journalists Meets in Budapest.”
Science Communication, Vol. 21 No. 2, December 1999, 200-202.
Drillsma, Barbara, ed. 2006. The
Barriers Are Down: EUSJA
Advances Across Europe. Strasbourg, France:
European Union of Science Journalists’Associations.
Available for ordering from the
official EUSJA website at www.eusja.org,
this book chronicles the history of the organization and its
founding.
International Federation of Environmental Journalists.
Organizational website available at: www.ifej.org
International
Science Writers Association. Organizational website
available at: www.internationalsciencewriters.org
Provides
membership information,
announcements of important events, and links to science news. A
members-only
area also provides job information, announcements of grants and awards,
and
access to the ISWA newsletter.
White,
Jessica. 2007. 2007 Science Journalist Associations
Guide. World Federation of Science Journalists, Gatineau, Canada.
World Federation of Science
Journalists. Organizational
website available at www.wfsj.org