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Special Lecture Series: Who Tells the Story of Science? The Power and Peril of Science and Technology Journalism in 2025
March 19 @ 5:15 am - 6:45 pm
Science and technology journalism faces a pivotal moment. Our most pressing challenges—climate crisis, global pandemics, the transformative potential of artificial intelligence—demand vigorous, deeply-informed, and thoughtful coverage by independent journalists.
As questions about science, technology, health, and the environment become ever more central to our political lives across many scales, from local to national to global, science and technology journalism is pivotal to safeguarding the democratic process. Science and technology journalists must balance multiple, often competing, imperatives: to translate and explain hard-won scientific knowledge, while also holding scientific institutions to account; to report on the social effects of technological change, while subjecting claims of technological hype (and doom) up to independent scrutiny. They must do so at a time when seismic shifts in the media landscape, from the rise of social media to the hollowing out of newsrooms, have created new threats (and perhaps opportunities) for the journalistic enterprise. This lecture series brings together four visionary leaders in the field to reflect on the state of science and technology journalism today—and to chart a path for its future.
All talks will take place from 5:15 to 6:45 pm ET and are open to members of the MIT community.
Wednesday, March 19: Bina Venkataraman, Editor-at-large for Strategy and Innovation, The Washington Post
Location: E51-395
Monday, March 31: Hillary Rosner, Assistant Director, Center for Environmental Journalism, University of Colorado-Boulder
Location: E51-145
Wednesday, April 2: Usha Lee McFarling, National Correspondent, STAT
Location: E51-145
Monday, April 7: Ashley Smart, Associate Director, Knight Science Journalism Program, MIT
Location: E51-145