Around 30 people died of Japanese encephalitis in the past few weeks in Far Western Nepal. Nearly 24 districts out of 75, and nearly 12 million people out of a total population of 25 million are living in the Japanese encephalitis-prone area. Malaria is common in Nepal as well as in many other developing countries including India. Nearly 18.3 million people in 65 districts are living under the threat of succumbing to malaria. Every year, tens of thousands of people become infected with malaria worldwide and millions die. Kala-azar, the disease caused by a type of infected sand fly that commonly breeds in the home environment, affects nearly six million people living below the poverty line in marginalized communities in 13 districts of Nepal.

Last but not least, lymphatic filariasis, commonly known as elephantiasis, also affects a large sector of the Nepali population and it is estimated that nearly 14 million people are living with the risk of contracting this disease in the rural areas of the southern flood plains of Nepal.

The diseases mentioned above are very common in Nepal. Known commonly as Vector Borne Diseases (VBD), they are common in many other developing countries of Asia and Africa. People need not die from these diseases yet there is a very high morbidity and mortality due to them in many countries.

The Nepali government provides free medication for Kala-azar, Japanese encephalitis and malaria, but people continue to die in hordes from these diseases. What they need is timely medication. More than timely medication what they need is information on simple measures that could help protect them from these diseases. They need to be made scientifically aware.

This also applies to awareness about fertilizers and seeds, and technologies that could help people harness better products. The people, however, continue to suffer and languish in poverty simply because they are not aware as to how they could turn the power of information to their own benefit because they are not aware of this information that could potentially help them propel their destiny from rags to riches.

Ignorance, and not the diseases themselves, is to a large extent the major cause of the high morbidity rates mentioned above. Similarly, ignorance is an important factor in poverty. It is here that the usefulness of science information, information about the disease and how one could protect oneself from it and information about the useful technologies and the seeds, becomes important. No less important are the practitioners of science communication such as science journalists, science writers, science popularizers and science communicators. People need to be made scientifically literate in order to avoid becoming the victims of their sheer ignorance. Science journalists have the power to tear off the veil of ignorance and rescue them.

The only way they could be made scientifically literate and aware of simple methods to protect themselves from these and several other diseases, the only way their poverty can be alleviated is by raising their level of understanding of science and technology by properly utilizing the existing and most appropriate channels of mass communication for science information. Information about the disease, about new tools of development and about new technologies should be communicated to them in the language that they speak and understand.

The science communication done by science journalists, animators, popularizers and writers helps in the process of making people become scientifically literate. On the one hand, public communication of science remains in the backwaters in many countries while, on the other hand, science continues to fathom new frontiers becoming more complicated for ordinary people to appreciate the value and scope of science knowledge.

Science continues to become more complicated and mysterious as we talk about its importance in the lives of the general public and there is a need to demystify it. Science has the solution to many of our present day problems but it continues to serve only those who can afford it. Science may be universal in nature but it has become a domain of the rich through which they can dictate to the vulnerable. Science and scientific inventions and discoveries have become the slave of the rich to exploit the poor.

To a large extent, science communication and science journalism is a passion for those who practice it, but for the editors and publishers what matters is sensationalism, because that is what people have been groomed to admire the most. People waste time reading about murder, sex and personal gossips but are not aware of how they could best protect themselves from a deadly disease or benefit from the existing technology because no one has dared to write about them in a language that an ordinary person could understand. There is a need to use street language to write about science and scientific discoveries and technologies, but what we do is make it more complicated by copying the scientists.

Science communication in general and science journalism in particular is a discipline that is still in the process of evolution in many countries. It has been a long time since discussions have been going on and workshop seminars have been organized to address this problem and problems associated with its complications. However, much remains to be done to lift the stature of science communication/journalism in many countries of the world that stand to benefit from the application of science in their daily lives.

When there are no training institutions to specifically train a public science communicator or science journalist then the chances are minimal that there would be a huge community of science journalists and broadcasters. The trend has been in many cases that a scientist, at some point in his life, decides to come out of his laboratory, and instead of a beaker, pipette or twist of the knob of a microscope, decides to hold a pen.

There have been quite a few of them who have made it to the top as science journalists/writers. But scientists, engineers, doctors and other specialists turning to science journalism are not enough. There must be a concerted effort to attract and train young people to this area of journalism. These people could also come from other branches of journalism. Having a science degree should not be mandatory to becoming a science journalist.

Science communication and science journalism may be an old area of specialization in many developed countries. In many developing countries it is still an unheard of subject. Nepal is no exception. There are frequent meetings about the importance of science communication but there are hardly any training institutions outside the United States or the United Kingdom where they train people to become a science communicator for the public. The number of colleges providing journalism courses continues to grow in Nepal, but there are none that offer any training in the area of science journalism. I am sure Nepal is not the only country where this occurs.

There is a need to find a select group of people from different countries and train them in the area of science journalism and science communication in countries that have such specialized courses. This will help build a core group of professionals. This group will serve as trainers in their respective countries to train more like them.

Peer pressure:

Peer pressure is a killer in the world of sensational news media. Science becomes more complicated when a scientist refuses to cooperate with a lay journalist. The problem stems from the refusal of scientists to explain their work and findings to the general public. Scientists, at times, don't trust science reporters for the simple reason that the journalists want them to simplify the details of the research as well as the findings. Their inflated ego comes in between. Scientists are also exposed to peer group pressure not to speak to journalists, as they will be blamed in such a case for making an effort to achieve personal popularity.

Apart from all this, the new trend is that public funding for scientific research has shrunk considerably, with the result that renowned scientists flee to private pharmaceutical companies, laboratories and research institutions for the better pay and better research opportunities. The first and foremost casualty of this marketing process is their freedom of expression. Keep your distance from the media, is the first rule that they are taught to obey.

Our Belief

We, as science journalists, believe that popularizing science and raising the scientific awareness of people on the street is a must for the alleviation of poverty. We are also convinced that more windows of opportunity need to be opened to encourage more people to take up the challenging responsibility of science journalism and science communication.

Apart from that, governments should be pursued and pressured to help establish institutions to train science communicators and science writers/journalists, and universities having journalism faculties should be given necessary support to establish training facilities for science journalism.

We believe that major print, electronic and broadcasting media organizations should be encouraged to provide more coverage and space for science related information on a regular basis, and not only when something big happens. There is also the need to simplify and to bring innovation to the teaching of science so that people enjoy reading science and scientific literature.

Manual of Science Journalism

A ‘Manual of Science Journalism’ is much needed if professional scientific journalism is to see the light

We find manuals of journalism. We come across manuals of political and economic reporting/writing. It is high time that practitioners of science communication pay attention to the development of manuals for the public communication of science so that not only the practitioners of science journalism but even science writers and scientists could equally benefit. The manual should find or suggest simple explanations for complicated scientific jargon only understood by other scientists. Furthermore, such a manual should be translated into several languages to promote an easy understanding of the process of science journalism and science communication in order to encourage people from other disciplines to join the profession.

Those of us who are working as science journalists or science communicators in our respective countries should also aim at creating an international center or international association to promote science journalism and science communication going beyond our respective countries and workstations.

World Federation of Science Journalists

Science journalists from around the world reached an agreement in Brazil to form the WFSJ

During the 3rd World Conference of Science Journalists (WCSJ) in Sao Paulo, Brazil in November 2002, science journalists and science communicators from around the world reached an agreement to form what is now known as the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ). WFSJ is primarily being conceived to group science journalists and national associations of science journalists to create the opportunity for the further development and training of science journalists and science communicators from around the world, especially in developing countries.

There remain, however, large gaps of misunderstandings, ifs and buts to fathom, all of which will be discussed in October 2004 in Montreal, Canada when science journalists and science communicators from around the world will come together to share their views and give WFSJ a formal structure. Montreal will be the venue of 4th World Conference of Science Journalists and the event will be organized by the Canadian Science Journalists Association with support from several organizations and foundations including the International Development Research Center (IDRC), a Canadian international non-governmental organization (INGO) that has played a significant role in developing science communication in the developing world, particularly in Asia and Africa. Let us all hope that our long dream of training more people in science journalism and a new collaborative mechanism will be set in motion with the establishment of the WFSJ.

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Prakash Khanal is a Nepali science and environmental journalist and former editor of RONAST Science Features as well as General Secretary of the Science Writers Association of Nepal. He was elected in the Brazil 3rd World Conference of Science Journalists to the post of Secretary for the World Federation of Science Journalists. Your emails will be forwarded to him by contacting the editor at: ScienceTech@islam-online.net. 

 

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