Rakiya A. Muhammad
How do you uncover and research interesting science history stories? How do you recreate history in a compelling narrative? And how do you recognise when historical context is vital to your news story?
How do you successfully pitch a science history story? These formed the focus of discussion at a session on science history reporting at the National Association of Science Writers (NASW) 2021 conference, where award-winning science journalists and authors share their perspectives on the field.
The science writers who have made history part of their beat offer tips to help journalists tell compelling stories about scientists and the practice of science.
They tackle the topic – How (and why) to pitch a story that happened 100 years ago. “We can tell more interesting stories when we steep ourselves in the history of our fields,” says Michelle Nijhuis, a project editor for The Atlantic and a long-time contributing editor for High Country News.”
“And not only that, but in the politics that have surrounded them over time, and the politics that have developed within those fields, and the social context in which they have been carried out, and also, even the art and literature that they have inspired or been inspired by.”
Michelle, author of the new book BELOVED BEASTS: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction, is a big fan of disciplinary trespass. “I think it leads to better journalism overall, and it leads to some great, really palatable stories that I think non-scientist can find a lot to dig their fingers into.”
Deborah Blum, a Pulitzer-prize winning American science journalist and columnist, underscores the need to ground science journalism in history.
She is author of the 2018 New York Times Notable Book, The Poison Squad; the New York Times best-seller, The Poisoner’s Handbook (2010); Ghost Hunters (2010); Love at Goon Park (2006); Sex on the Brain (1997) and The Monkey Wars (1994).
Deborah never really thought about the history of science at all when she started journalism. She had an undergraduate degree and worked for three newspapers before getting a graduate degree in science journalism at the University of Wisconsin.
“There my advisor said to me- you have to take a history of science course because if you don’t know the history of the field you are writing about, then it’s much easier for you to be fooled or for people to tell you they were the first to discover,” she disclosed.
“Or not to know the history of a particular compound or of a material you are writing about, and so you become much more easily conned if you don’t know the history.”
She adds, “it’s not just that you are keeping yourself from being conned, but it’s that you understand this path that brought us to where we are in science.”
For David Wolman, an award-winning book writer and long-time contributor at Outside and Wired, grounding science journalism in history can help tell more compelling stories about scientists and the practice of science.
“Another thing I think is, don’t always assume that just because you have seen a thing out there, it means it has been done because it probably hasn’t been done as well as you could do it.” Points out the author of Aloha Rodeo, which won the 2020 Oregon Book Award for nonfiction and was an NPR best book of the year.
Wolman’s other books include The End of Money, A Left-Hand Turn Around the World, Righting the Mother Tongue, and First-hand. Wolman’s work has been anthologised twice in the Best American Science and Nature.
“Just because you have seen a topic out there doesn’t mean you can’t do it different and better,” he reiterates.
But what do you look for in stories that have a history angle? “I think present-day relevance. I mean, there’s always got to be,” stated Michelle.
“You can have a pretty broad definition of a hook. But you still have to have one because people do like history. But if you don’t provide them with a reason to read it, they’re going to be wondering, “what am I doing here?”
She adds “And the ability to bring these characters to life if they are well-known people; do you have a new way of looking at them? If they are not familiar people, can you show us who they are?”
“And then also I think it’s important like what do they tell us that is about more than just their lives. What do they tell us about that time they lived in, the time we live in, what did they tell us about some larger issue?”
Wolman doesn’t think finding history stories or science history stories differs from the Skillset or the luck of finding any stories- “Talk, talk, talk to people,” he says.
“I was in a van in Okinawa going to a cybersecurity conference where I was chasing a story lead that turned into a total dead end. But in the van, there was a guy who worked for the NSA; we ended up chatting,” he recalls
“And I don’t know if it was four or eight years later. For me, that initial conversation led to a story in Smithsonian about a woman who was very high ranking in NSA in the 1980s and was pivotal during the Cuban Missile Crisis. And nobody knew anything about her because its NSA, its nukes, and it’s an overlooked woman.”
He notes the story would not have happened if he hadn’t chatted with the stranger. “So, that talking to people thing, again for any kind of story, it’s just so useful.”
Deborah gives tips on how to streamline finding good science history narratives. She states: “When I am starting a story, I tend to put almost everyone I interview through Google Scholar and look at sort of the arc of their career, and then I’ll take the topic itself in Google Scholar, what were they saying about this 30 years ago, what were they saying about this 40 years ago?”
“That’s hugely helpful to me in thinking about the story I want to tell today.” According to her, it’s helpful to access an excellent public library and look at the earlier press coverage of the issues. “So, you can go into something like ProQuest Historical Newspapers and say when they first discovered the x planet, Pluto.”
“What was the media coverage of the time like? And it’s helpful as well, as a journalist, to understand some of the history and the approaches of the way people were telling stories.”
