How to Make Your Career in Science Journalism

Before starting any career one must make the purposes clear. The purposes can be two fold. One is the purpose of the subject of the profession. The other is the purpose of the aspirant into that subject of profession. 

So before planning for being a Science writer or a Science journalist, you must know and understand the purpose of the profession. 

Science is something we cannot do without. Most of the other topics of journalism like sports and entertainment are quite optional in our lives. We can live without them, maybe just with a little vacant mind. That vacancy can be a humane deficiency or can be not at all significant depending on many parameters like the topic of coverage and the consumers of the topic. 

But the case of Science is different. We can do without many things in our daily life, but we can never do without Science. And we are so instinctive on that, which makes Science so obvious and also unnoticed to us. We hardly feel the presence of Science all around us every moment. 

Have you ever imagined waking up one morning to find yourself in a jungle or field, on a grassland bed, and without even a cell phone, or spectacles, or at least the toilet? Because all these objects like your room, your bed, your cell phone, and even the toilet, all made by Science. That is developed by humans but using more than many Scientific theories and applications.

When we are hungry, we use devices with applied Scientific theories to prepare our food. You are thirsty, your water purifier will help you. But have you ever thought and realized that your water purifier is a piece of Science? 

We indeed use our water purifier or cell phone or even the clothes we wear so instinctively and obviously, that our mind fails to perceive them as Science, if not in full but at least by miniature partial. 

So it naturally becomes a perpetual duty or kind of gratitude for all of us to know something about Science and thus about the devices and equipment we use daily. And for the same reason perhaps, this branch of media got very high popularity. Many people search for light and non-technical scientific literature in all of their choiced media. And most of the media also shows interest in supplying more popular Science literature. 

Every common person cannot acquire the knowledge to the level of a scientist or an engineer, but that’s why we saw the rise of what the media world knows as the popular Science literature and Science journalism. Those pieces of content are written and delivered in such a style that people with very less or even zero knowledge of formal Science and Mathematics would understand through most of the text. 

Though the two words, popular Science literature and Science journalism are essentially not the same, but have a lot of overlapping areas. Hence often they both come under a single package delivered by any single person. Most of the achieved Science journalists usually are good in popular Science writing and many have published books and articles all around the media. But where do they actually differ? 

As I said above that both the areas are substantially overlapping and often come under the same package. Still being two different terms there has to be some different notion ideally. 

Science journalism is a more specific and professional term of reporting news related to Science and Technology. There are a lot of daily happenings in the realm of Science and Technology. Most of them remain away from the people and only a selected few Scientific workers and Scientists come to know them. With Science journalism things are going to change a lot. 

The main work of a Science journalist is to find out information (and knowledge as it sometimes seems). Once any worthy information comes in hand then the journalist must write on it to make that highly technical information more easily available and accessible to the mass of people. Thus a Science journalist needs to spend time also within the realm of Scientific research, either online or offline. Then he would extract the core story and present that to his audience in a lucid and understandable manner through different media of his or her choice. This bridging of the communication between different layers of content provider and content consumer is the central concept in journalism. 

Now the question is what we should understand by popular Science literature? Actually Science journalism is one kind of popular Science presentation. But the domain of popular Science is much wider than just journalism. 

When a deep and highly technical Scientific subject is written in lucid and easily understandable language, so that common people with almost no or very little Scientific knowledge can also read and understand, then that kind of writing is called popular Science writing. The literature can be an article in a media like a newspaper, magazine or a website. It also can be a book, or even a video or podcast, even it can be a live lecture or conference proceedings. 

I have read many popular Science books written by world famous Scientists. Many of you have read ‘A Brief History of Time’ by Stephen Hawking. This is perhaps the most famous book on popular Science and that is also written by one of the most famous Scientist of all times. This was just one, but there are many more such titles (I will provide a very brief but interesting reference list later at the end of this article) 

Not only books, famous Scientists often write their popular Science articles in different newspapers and magazines. Popular Science writings are also done by Science journalists, beside their Science reporting assignments. There are popular Science and Science news columns in most renowned newspapers and magazines all around the world. 

There are also dedicated magazines for popular Science literature. Indian Scientific community CSIR runs a famous magazine known as ‘Science Reporter’. Many universities and organizers also run their own magazines and periodicals. ‘Resonance’ is such a periodical run by IISC (Indian Institute of Science). 

As the progress of Science will continue, the different types of relevant literature will also keep developing and continue. Only formats of presentation may change with time as technology and media accessibilities are changing. Once print media was the only and hence most famous route to reach people. Now the situation has changed a lot. Digital media and the internet with smartphones have changed things a lot. Many people no longer depend on print media. Such changes are more to happen with passing days. 

In all conditions, the needs of writers for good Scientific literature are not going to be exhausted any time soon. Rather we can see an uprising of requirements. Thus whoever likes to write and has considerable skill and aptitude in Scientific writing can opt to take a career in that area. Let us see what are the different ways one can enter into the world of popular Science writing and journalism.

A career in writing is not just an easy job. It takes a lot of reading and writing aptitude in the first place. If you are not an ardent reader then being a good and creative writer is next to impossible. 

You have to read a lot of writers, both the good ones and also not so good ones. The same equally goes for Science writing. You have to read a lot of Science writers, discover your best style and also figure out how that style fits with your readers. 

You will also need to consume a huge amount of Scientific literature including research articles and all sorts of media publications. You need to stay continuously updated with the daily developments in the many areas of Science and technology. 

Before writing you need to figure out what to write, why to write and how to write. Unless you can most clearly figure out these three fundamental questions to none but yourself it will never be possible to put your best creative self in your writing. And for this at the very first you need to find out your niche(s), where you will feel most perpetually comfortable to read as well as write. 

Once you know your niche(s), you have to read a lot and a lot of all the writers in that niche and also surrounding that niche. If it all goes right then you will just perpetually pick up your pen and it will almost write all by itself. You would not need to put too much effort in your writing. 

Actually for a talented writer, the effort must be negligible in writing. Because the more effort you put in your writing, the more non-creative it will tend to be. Effort is almost inversely proportional to creativity. Your writing should be as smooth as a fountain. Reading is the place where you need to put all your effort. 

Yes, all your effort should go to reading. Read a lot, not only passively read but be a very active note-taker. Work hard on your notes and jots. Be surrounded with books, magazines, paper and pens always. 

Carry some books, paper and pen even in your most frenzy holliday trip. If you find reading and taking notes interesting and inspiring even when you are resting in your hotel room during your holiday trips, then you can be pretty sure that you can become a great writer. 

If not at that extreme, then also you can become a successful writer. You have to continue your reading and writing which will gradually make you better and sharper as days will pass by. 

As I said above, if you are a perpetually good writer then making a career in writing would not take too much of  problems. 

There are more than one way or route to make a career in writing, including Scientific writing. There are formal ways as well as informal ways.Though as a matter of fact, most of the most famous writers you would usually find in the writing industry are made in informal ways. That is they do not possess any specialist education in writing or journalism. They are writers just being a writer. 

For those who are not as natural and perpetual, there is good news that still he or she can become a professional writer. There are a lot of formal academic institutions who provide suitable education and certifications to become a writer, professionally.