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The Globalization
of Science Journalism
Scientific Information Aiding Development
(October 6, 2004) -
Can African or Latin American science gain a higher profile? Is
it idealistic to think the North-South gap can be bridged by better
scientific information?
That’s the challenge underlying the 2001 launch
of Scidev.net (Science and Development Network):
improve the quantity of reliable scientific and technological
information capable of having an impact on development in Southern
countries.
A huge challenge! "We’re starting to
see a few more of our articles in newspapers," said Christina
Scott of South African television at yesterday’s three-hour
workshop devoted entirely to SciDev. But for African news to interest
a European editor-in-chief, it has to involve a disaster (famine,
war etc.) or be rather exotic. "What’s more,"
she added, "editors-in-chief are still afraid of science
— which raises the bar for African or Asian science even
higher."
Yet more astonishing is the fact that science from
Africa or Latin America seems just as hard to sell to national
newspapers! This surprise is even reflected in the latest edition
of the Canadian Science Writers’ Association newsletter,
Science Link: most of the science news published in Colombian
newspapers comes from Northern countries because the editors-in-chief
and journalists prefer to go with what has already been published
elsewhere! And that’s why Colombians and Cameroonians are
inadequately informed about science that can affect their everyday
lives.
SciDev isn’t the only one in the picture. For
the past 16 years Syfia, a French-language agency, has been covering
general news in Southern countries. It has a few media among its
clients, albeit very few. A nonprofit news agency funded by the
Agence intergouvernementale de la francophonie, it is also a network
of 10 agencies (InfoSud, Jade, Proximités, etc.). Unlike
SciDev, which is based in London, or Agence Science-Presse in
Montreal, Syfia has most of its articles written by correspondents
on site in the 35 countries it covers.
Swiss-based Agence InfoSud, like SciDev, focuses
on articles about North-South relations: debt, cooperation, tourism,
human rights, women’s rights etc. As for funding, most comes
from grants and donations: last year 99% of SciDev’s revenue
came from four sources, including the British, Swedish and Canadian
(CIDA) international development agencies.
SciDev: http://www.scidev.net
Syfia: http://www.syfia.info/fr/index.asp
InfoSud: http://www.infosud.org
Pascal Lapointe
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