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Time again for our Website of the Week, when we showcase interesting and innovative online destinations.
Scientists publish their work in peer-reviewed journals, so other scientists can evaluate new discoveries. But what about science journalists? Our Website of the Week tries to bring a bit of peer review to the work of science journalism.
"The Knight Science Journalism Tracker is an effort to allow reporters around the world and anyone else to get a sense of what is being written in the daily press about science news," says veteran science journalist Charlie Petit, who is the main writer of the Tracker.
He says it's the first site that looks "specifically at how the press is covering science as much as it looks at what the science news itself is."
The Tracker is a project of the science journalism program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Despite the decline of newspapers in recent years, there is still a lot of science reporting to cover, and Petit says he keeps his eyes open for stories that look at the news from a different perspective.
"Too much of science journalism in this country particularly is sort-of spoon fed. Too often they, in fact, all use the same angle. They'll pick up some quotes, maybe from a press release. So what I look for are instances when someone takes ownership of the story for himself, a reporter who sees his own excitement and doesn't rely on a press officer to do it."
The site frequently compares the way different journalists report a story, highlighting, for example, a particularly good way a story helps readers understand a new research finding.
Petit says science journalism has declined in American newspapers, but he insists good science journalism remains important in today's world.
"Bad science journalism is dangerous. It can make people either too comfortable or too fearful of new technologies and new discoveries."
Take a critical look at reporting on science at the Knight Science Journalism Tracker at ksjtracker.mit.edu, or visit our site, VOANews.com, for the link to this and more than 250 other Websites of the Week.
We'd like to hear what you think of the site - please e-mail us: NewDesign@VOANews.com
