A freelance science correspondent in a developing country?
Igor Zolnerkevic
Monday, 03 November 2008 17:54 UTC
Being frustrated by the lack of original science writing outlets here in Brazil (it is cheaper to publishers just translate SciAm and New Scientist content…), I want to try to live of writing about Brazilian science and scientists for English written magazines. It isn´t a silly plan, is it?
Has someone of you worked as a freelance science correspondent in a developing country?
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Replies
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You might want to check out an excellent website, SciDevNet.
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Excellent indeed, but somewhat incomplete.
Last year, for instance, I pichted to the SciDev´s Latin America editor an exclusive story about several science popularisation innitiatives that Brazilian amateur astronomers community is promoting for the International Astronomy Year and it was refused. The editor argued that Astronomy is out of the scope of SciDev, and then, without success, I argued back that the story focus was not Astronomy but science popularisation… -
Igor, you might also like to try posting in the Latin America forum. Some well-connected folk check this forum and may be able to offer some advice.
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That reminds me, Matt, of the Nature Network forum, Science for Development. It seems as if your Latin American friends are also present there, as well as SciDevNet people.
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By the way, Igor, you just have to keep trying. It isn’t easy getting articles published. Don’t get disheartened because you didn’t get one story published – all publications have their scope and times that they want to focus more on one aspect than another. Keep trying and good luck.
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Hi Igor, I used to work in India as a features writer… In my experience there is a huge appetite in Britain for science news from less-covered countries, so I would go for it.
But even more exciting (I think) would be to try and get the Brazilian media to cover Brazilian science – Pitch them some exciting stories! You never know, you could start a science communication revolution!
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