Journalists provide an important function in a free society. Through their efforts, the public receives a low cost and accessible continuing education about its world — from who's inciting war, or where interest rates are likely to go in the next three months, to what made the space shuttle explode. In fact, it can be argued that the fast pace of modern society is making each of us increasingly more reliant on the news and knowledge journalists impart. As a member of the news-gathering fraternity, I have been asked to go behind the scenes and describe what it is that journalists, especially science writers, do — including what drives and limits us. There are lessons in this for everyone, not the least of which may be a greater appreciation for the growing symbiosis between the news media and science.

With some 65 U.S. newspapers already carrying regular science sections and a population of probably more than 1,000 accredited science writers, it may come as some surprise to learn that science journalism is largely an invention of this century. In their book Scientists and Journalists: Reporting Science as Neius (Free Press, New York, 1985), Sharon Friedman, Sharon Dunwoody, and Carol Rogers note that prior to the world wars, science achievements were seldom treated as news and “scientists rarely served as sources.”