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MONTREAL,
October 2 (IslamOnline.net) - IslamOnline.net’s science department will be
participating with three presentations in the World Conference for Science
Journalists to be held in Montreal, Canada, from October 4 to 8.
In
a special session on science and religion, IslamOnline.net’s science editor,
Nadia El-Awady, will be announcing the results of a study based on two surveys
she conducted on religion, science and the media on behalf of
IslamOnline.net’s science department.
The
first
survey, conducted on IslamOnline.net’s Web site with 633
participants involved, asked its readers their views on whether the media is
appropriately addressing their ethical concerns on science and scientific
research. The survey also attempted to assess whether incorporating religion
into science coverage in the media has a negative or perhaps positive influence
on its audiences. A comparative analysis between the answers of Muslims,
Christians and atheists was done to evaluate differences in opinion according to
religious beliefs.
The
second survey was done on 25 science journalists in the Arab world to assess
their views on how science and religion in the media should interact.
Comparisons
are made within the study between some of the answers of both surveyed groups
that indicate a certain measure of inconsistency between what science
journalists in the Arab world think their audiences expect, and what audiences
are really looking for.
El-Awady
is also a panel member in a session titled “Meet the Editors” together with Scientific
American’s Editor in Chief, John Rennie, New Scientist Editor,
Jeremy Webb, and the New York Time’s Deputy Science Editor,
James Gorman. Science journalists at the conference will be provided the
opportunity to submit their story ideas to this panel of editors that will then
explain why they would accept or reject some of the presented story ideas.
Also
in the conference, during a meeting of national associations of science
journalists, IslamOnline.net’s Arabic Web site science editor, Bothina Osama,
will be summarizing steps taken by a number of journalists in the Arab world to
establish an Arab association for science journalists. Currently in its final
phases of registration in Egypt, the Arab association started as an e-group that
has rapidly evolved to include 87 members. The association hopes to promote
networking between Arab science journalists and to provide journalists with the
skills needed to boost the role played by science journalism, and thus science,
in development in the Arab world.
The
World
Conference of Science Journalists 2004 (WCSJ2004) is fourth in a
series of conferences that started in Japan in 1992, followed by a second
conference in Hungary in 1999 and a third in Brazil in 2002. The Brazil
conference resulted in the creation of the World Federation of Science
Journalists. National associations of science journalists that are members of
the WFSJ will be meeting in Montreal to discuss common goals and general
challenges facing them.
This
year’s conference, under the theme “Reporting the Future: Journalism Meets
Emerging Science”, intends on promoting the role of science journalists within
science, society and the media by enhancing their story-telling skills of
ever-increasing complex scientific issues.
* Nadia El-Awady is
IslamOnline.net's Health & Science Page editor. She has a bachelor's
degree in medicine from Cairo University and is currently studying for a masters
degree in Journalism and Mass Communications at the American University in
Cairo.You can reach her at: ScienceTech@islam-online.net.
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