CNS Seminar (In-house)

Tuesday, January 21, 2014
2:00
Girvetz 2320
Speaker: 
Michael Todd, Kathleen Sharp, Matt Kettmann

Michael Todd is a staff writer at the social and behavioral science-focused Pacific Standard magazine, the publication arm of the Miller McCune Center for Research, Media and Public Policy. Most of Todd's career has been spent in newspaper journalism, ranging from papers in the Marshall Islands to tiny California farming communities. Before joining Miller McCune, he was managing editor of the national magazine Hispanic Business.

A former correspondent for The Boston Globe, investigative journalist Kathleen Sharp has contributed to The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Fortune, and other national publications. Currently, she writes for The Atlantic and Salon.com. Her most recent book, Blood Medicine: Blowing the Whistle on One of the Deadliest Prescription Drugs Ever, details Johnson & Johnson’s allegedly illegal sales and promotions of the anemia drug popularly known as Epo.

Matt Kettmann is the senior editor of The Santa Barbara Independent, where he has worked since 1999, reporting with special attention to environmental and agricultural issues. He has written for Smithsonian, The New York Times, TIME, Wine Spectator, and other publications. He is also co-founder of New Noise Santa Barbara, an annual music conference and festival.

The public’s comprehension of happenings in the knowledge-production fields is often mediated by the popular press. Therefore, it is useful for scholars to better understand the process by which their work is communicated to a general audience. On January 21, three experienced journalists will visit the CNS to participate in a panel discussion about the interface between university research and journalism. They will talk about the challenge of balancing the need for accuracy with the desire to produce engaging storylines when reporting on the sciences, they will offer advice to researchers on how to better communicate with reporters or directly with a general audience, and they will reflect on how scholarship informs their own work. Time will be reserved for audience Q & A.