Doctor in the newsroom

UCL's Kate Mandeville went inside the newsroom during a hands-on placement with The Times to uncover the workings of science journalism. Mandeville, a National Institute for Health Research Academic Clinical Fellow in Public Health (UCL Infection and Population Health), describes the mass media story-making process, which she experienced first hand during her British Science Association Media Fellowship. 'This year, I was lucky enough to win a fellowship with the Science Editor of The Times newspaper, Mark Henderson. My discipline - public health - is all about communication with the public. So what could be more interesting than a placement with the most powerful public communicator of all: the mass media. Each year, the British Science Association awards ten Media Fellowships for scientists to spend three to eight weeks working with a science journalist in national press, broadcast and internet media outlets. The aim of the fellowships is to create awareness amongst scientists of the mentality, pressures, and constraints of science journalism.