Uploaded July 2024 | Updated September 2026, 9 hours ago
Science journalists and communicators are increasingly called upon to cover topics that spark social and political turmoil, ranging from abortion and gender-affirming care to vaccines and guns. Reporting on and writing about these subjects can require more sensitivity and time than other science stories, as every step of the process, from finding sources to sharing a published story, comes with added complexity.
Abortion is one key example of a medical topic that has become increasingly political, following Supreme Court decisions and barriers to accessing health care across the U.S. In this Connector Chat, co-presented with the Journalist's Resource, we discussed covering abortion and other controversial topics with journalist Sarah McCammon, a national political correspondent at NPR, and Katie Woodruff, a public health social scientist in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Services at the University of California, San Francisco.
Moderated by Naseem Miller, senior health editor at The Journalist’s Resource, the panel explored research on news coverage of abortion, how to find and protect sources, how to conduct interviews with sensitivity, reporting may be different for hot-button topics than with other types of science and health stories.
Check out CASW Connector here: connector.casw.org
Check out The Journalist's Resource here: journalistsresource.org
Science journalists and communicators are increasingly called upon to cover topics that spark social and political turmoil, ranging from abortion and gender-affirming care to vaccines and guns. Reporting on and writing about these subjects can require more sensitivity and time than other science stories, as every step of the process, from finding sources to sharing a published story, comes with added complexity.
Abortion is one key example of a medical topic that has become increasingly political, following Supreme Court decisions and barriers to accessing health care across the U.S. In this Connector Chat, co-presented with the Journalist's Resource, we discussed covering abortion and other controversial topics with journalist Sarah McCammon, a national political correspondent at NPR, and Katie Woodruff, a public health social scientist in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Services at the University of California, San Francisco.
Moderated by Naseem Miller, senior health editor at The Journalist’s Resource, the panel explored research on news coverage of abortion, how to find and protect sources, how to conduct interviews with sensitivity, reporting may be different for hot-button topics than with other types of science and health stories.
Check out CASW Connector here: connector.casw.org
Check out The Journalist's Resource here: journalistsresource.org
