CPAS lecturer Dr Merryn McKinnon and three of her students (Johanna Howes, Andy Leach & Natasha Prokop) have published a paper in international journal Public Understanding of Science.

The paper examines the relationship between journalists, science communicators and scientists in NSW and the ACT, and argues that while the quality of science journalism is high, science communicators play a critical role in mediating between the other groups.

Completed as a major assessment task for their SCOM6016 Science and the Media masters class, this exploratory study replicates a New Zealand based project. Despite the proximity of the countries, the science journalism landscapes are very different.

A new group of students are expanding this study in 2017 and taking it national, with a view to publishing the results of the national survey to provide a more complete picture of how the stakeholders in Australian science journalism interact.

This is the second paper to be published from a collaboration between Dr McKinnon and her SCOM6016 students, after a paper was published in the Journal of Science Communication last November.