RTD info - European Commission - Europa

The
media’s medium
To report on an event, you first have to know it has happened.
Traditionally, science journalists, just like any
other journalists, depended on contacts in the relevant
circles, their address book and sometimes press agencies
to cover news in their field – providing a necessarily partial
view. The Internet changed all that, first by opening
up a vast field of exploration, then by hosting services
specifically designed for the media, often combining a
website and e-mail. ‘The difficulty of obtaining recent
and, above all, reliable information on the discoveries of
European research teams can be partly overcome by
developing Internet services such as AlphaGalileo,’
stresses Claude Birraux, author of a recent report on scientific
communication for the Council of Europe. He is
referring to the genuine on-line press centre, dedicated
to European science, technology and medicine, and
recently expanded to include the arts.
O
On-line press agencies AlphaGalileo – run by
the British Association for the Advancement of Science
and financed by a number of governments, foundations
and scientific institutions in mainland Europe as well as by
the European Union – aims to provide a counterbalance
to US domination in the field of disseminating scientific
information, as well as to the US tendency not to mention
research carried out elsewhere. It gives professional
journalists a factual view of scientific news through access
to press releases and other news from all European players
– research bodies, companies, governments, learned
societies, press agencies, etc. – as well as the contact particulars
of experts in various fields.
In addition to its portal which can be consulted at any
time, AlphaGalileo offers a mail alert service automatically
notifying any registered journalist of developments in his
or her fields of interest. Although it is open to the general
public, information still under an embargo is, of course,
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I N T E R N E T RTD info Special Science and Media September 2002
As a general information source and support
dedicated to their profession, the Internet
has quickly become an essential tool for
science journalists. Yet it remains one of
many tools which, in principle, should not
be a reason for failing to follow up on other
sources, too.
only circulated to professional journalists. The British journalist
Colin Weeks says that ‘a recent study showed that
three-quarters of professionals find the service efficient,
and 20% said it encouraged them to write more articles
on European science and technology.’
A European site, AlphaGalileo supplements the American
site Eurekalert. Journalists naturally use them both.
R
Rules of the trade The Internet gives the press
the chance to discover a vast amount of scientific information
from many different sources. Although the mix of
genres and the difficulty of differentiating between reliable
and less reliable sources can be an obstacle to Internet
use by the general public, this is not, in theory, a
problem for these professionals. They are most probably
the biggest users of document resources such as fundamental
databases compiled by scientists, bibliographical
bases, the portals of academic institutions and other scientific
bodies, as well as the valuable metasites of certain
university libraries.
Direct access to information from a computer keyboard,
whether circulated by on-line press services or obtained
from databases, does not mean, however, that it is no
longer necessary to apply the traditional methods of
journalistic investigation. The Internet is a vital tool for
scientific journalists, provided they continue to get out
and about.
Sites
#Alphagalileo
www.alphagalileo.org
#Eurekalert
www.eurekalert.org