The sixth annual conference, at North Carolina State University, will feature more than 70 discussion sessions and workshops over three days and additional demonstrations, science lab tours, a museum reception & a dose of comedy. The keynote speaker will be anthropologist and National Geographic Explorer Mireya Mayor, author of “Pink Boots and a Machete.”
Among the sessions of special interest to health journalists:
- The special perils – and pleasures – of medical blogging
- Why Scientists Hate & Fear the Media – or, Science training for journalists
- Podcasting for Beginners
- The basic science behind the medical research: where to find it, how and when to use it.
- Harassing the Powerful for Fun and Profit: An Informal Investigative Reporters’ Guide to Uncovering Secrets and Bypassing Flacks
- You Got Your Politics in My Science
- Data visualization
- Know Your Digital Rights!
- Covering Political Neuroscience in the Blogosphere
- The Limits of Transparency: Self-Censorship in Physician Writers
- Is encouraging scientific literacy more than telling people what they need to know?
- Do press officers/public information officers need journalists any more?
- Science Communication, Risk Communication, and the role of Social Networks
- Data Journalism: Talking the talk
- Advocacy in medical blogging/communication – can you be an advocate and still be fair?
- Charting Your Own Course: How to Make It As a Freelancer
- Genomic Medicine: From Bench to Bedside
- Never Tell Me the Odds: Assessing Certainty and Probability in Scientific Data
Many other sessions are being planned; see a more complete schedule.