The World's First Online Course in Science Journalism

February 2, 2008

(Doha - Qatar) -- On Monday 4 February 2008 The World Federation of Science Journalists launched the world's first online course in science journalism http://www.wfsj.org/course/, in cooperation with the Science and Development Network (SciDev.Net).

The launch took place at the gathering of more than 75 science journalists in Doha, Qatar 3 - 9 February 2008, "Science Journalism meets Science in Qatar" - hosted by the Aljazeera Network and Qatar Foundation.
The authors and translators of the Online Course are experienced journalists and trainers from Germany, UK,, South Africa, Uganda, Egypt, Cameroon, Canada, India, China, and USA. They cover major practical and conceptual issues in science journalism, for example: how to find and research stories, exposing false claims, how to pitch to an editor, turning crisis reporting to advantage and so forth topics that are relevant to beginners in journalism as well as more experienced reporters and editors in all regions of the world.
Each lesson consists of an e-lecture with practical examples and links, followed by self-teaching questions and assignments that can be done with a tutor.

Lesson 1 - Planning and structuring your work (by Jan Lublinski)
Lesson 2 - Finding and judging science stories (by Julie Clayton) with personal testimonies by Natasha Bolognesi and Patrick Luganda
Lesson 3 - The interview (by Christina Scott)
Lesson 4 - Writing skills (by Nadia El-Awady)
Lesson 5 - What is Science? (by Gervais Mbarga and Jean-Marc Fleury)
Lesson 6 - Reporting scientific controversy (by Killugudi Jayaraman)
Lesson 7 - Reporting on Science policy (by Jia Hepeng and Richard Stone)
Lesson 8 - Preparing scientific TV programs and documentaries (by Carolyn Robinson)

The first eight lessons are being made public on the WFSJ website, in English, French and Arabic. Science journalists, trainers and students are invited to make use of the online lessons, and to send feedback to the editors, Julie Clayton (Julie.clayton@scidev.net) or Jan Lublinski (info@wfsj.org att: Jan Lublinski).

The lessons are already being taught and revised with participants of the WFSJ's Science Journalism Cooperation (SjCOOP) project. Further lessons and more training activities are in the pipeline.

Online Course Editors:
Julie Clayton (United Kingdom) and
Jan Lublinski (Germany)
Web: Augustin Denis (Canada)

The Online course was translated into Arabic by Nadia El-Awady and Magdy A.M. Said and into French by Gilles Provost and Isaac Njifakue.

Advisory Board: Nadia El-Awady (Egypt), Lamia Baiche (Algeria), Musa Fadl Alla (Sudan), Deborah Blum (United States), David Dickson (United Kingdom), Armand Faye (Senegal), Jean-Marc Fleury (Canada), Lisbeth Fog (Colombia), Jia Hepeng (China), Patrick Luganda (Uganda), Luisa Massarani (Brazil), Gervais Mbarga (Cameroon), Diran Onifade (Nigeria), T.V. Padma (India) and Christina Scott (South Africa).