Whenever I teach a media training workshop to scientists, I am pretty sure that two issues are going to pop up. The first is the inevitable question: “How can I review the story before it runs?” Scientists will be disappointed with that one, because the answer is, basically, sorry, you can’t. And the second issue is a litany of complaints about how journalists work: they oversimplify the science, their headlines are awful, they misquote scientists…

I’ve found that if I bring a science reporter to teach the workshop with me, these attitudes change. In follow-up surveys, workshop attendees say they now understand much better how journalists work and feel less hesitant about talking to them in the future. So I approached three top-notch science reporters who agreed to speak on-camera about their craft and how to improve collaborations between scientists and the media.

Without further introduction, here’s what these journalists had to say.

Seth Borenstein (Associated Press)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG0_4cY_P2I]

Dan Vergano (USA Today)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMm1bljhzTU]

Alexandra Witze (Science News)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLv9m2tVWB8]

(NOTE: This is this blogger’s last post, since I’m changing jobs. You can find me on Twitter at @mjvinas)

– Maria-José Viñas, AGU science writer