Reporting for The Citizen Scientist

Forrest M. Mims III

Richard Sambrook is director of the BBC World Service and Global News Division. During a recent conference in New York sponsored by the Associated Press, Sambrook stated, "We don't own the news any more." According to a story by AP business writer Seth Sutel, Sambrook said. "This is a fundamental realignment of the relationship between large media companies and the public."

This conclusion is news only to Big Media, which recently depended on ordinary people equipped with cell phone cameras and tiny video recorders to document major events such as the London subway bombing and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. News reporting will never be the same.

The Citizen Scientist has often relied on news tips from its readers for news stories. Ralph Coppola, our "Wanderings" columnist, has also provided a number of news tips.

You, too, can become a citizen reporter if you happen to be present during an event that will interest the citizen scientist community. Here are some tips for how to become a citizen reporter for The Citizen Scientist (TCS):

1. Science news is all over the web. We don't want to repeat science news you can read on many other web sites or in the press. We want science news that pertains especially to citizen and amateur scientists. A Space Shuttle launch is general news. If students flew an interesting science project on the shuttle and found some important results, that's a news story for TCS.

2. Science reporters must get their facts straight. Unless you are an eye witness to a news story, you must back up what you are reporting by checking your sources. For example, if the local paper has an article about a new species of bird spotted by a local bird watcher, check out the story by doing a web search on the person's name on our built-in Google window. Better yet, visit the local birder and get an interview and a digital photo.

3. Science reporters must know how to write and spell. Remember that nouns are capitalized in German, not English.

4. Science reporters must use the metric system for all measurements, followed by English units in parentheses.

5. Whenever possible, the common name of a plant or animal should be followed by the Latin name, as in baldcypress (Taxodium distichum).

6. The Citizen Scientist is read by people from around the world, which is why this sentence has a problem: "Smith suggests that fellow amateur scientists can repeat his experiment when wild flowers bloom in the May." Wild flowers may bloom only during the wet season in many tropical regions. It's difficult for reporters who live in temperate latitudes with four distinct seasons to relate to readers who live in the tropics with a wet and dry seasons. Another common problem is to assume that all readers of an article reside only north of the Equator or only in North America.

7. Photographs are important. While not all news stories need a photograph, a sharply focused photo is usually a plus. Photographs should be sent as JPEGs. All photos must have a list of numbered captions that match the file names of the JPEGs. JPEGs should be named, Fig_1, Fig_2, etc. You can add additional text after the figure number. Or just add the figure number in front of the existing file name.

8. Finally, send your story here. And don't forget to provide your first and last name. While this might seem obvious, many of the e-mails that arrive at TCS include only a first name or no name at all.

Please don't flood us with news stories. Send only those that have a theme that relates directly to the citizen science community.

Maybe you can help prove that Richard Sambrook was right when he told the Big Media reporters "We don't own the news any more." So please send us news stories about fellow citizen scientists so we can share them with members of the Society for Amateur Scientists and our visitors.