We're excited to announce a new resource for journalism teachers, students, and professionals. Whether you’re officially enrolled or a student at heart, this free resource rounds up years of insights from The Open Notebook into one, easy-to-reference sample course syllabus. The post Presenting Our First Sample Course Syllabus: Introduction to Science Writing appeared first on The Open Notebook.| The Open Notebook
People, companies, and government agencies don’t always return your phone calls. To investigate secretive subjects, reporters can make creative use of documents that are out in the open. Lawsuits, Instagram posts, tax records, and disciplinary records—to name just a few publicly available sources of information—can reveal a lot about who’s in trouble and who’s making money off whom. With persistence and discernment, journalists can piece together all kinds of stories from the public...| The Open Notebook
Las personas, empresas y agencias gubernamentales no siempre te devuelven la llamada. Para investigar temas secretos, los periodistas pueden darles un uso creativo a documentos públicos. Demandas, publicaciones en Instagram, registros fiscales y expedientes disciplinarios —por nombrar solo algunas fuentes de información disponibles públicamente— pueden revelar mucho sobre quién está en problemas y quién está lucrando con quién. Con persistencia y discernimiento, los periodistas pu...| The Open Notebook
The Q&A story format allows writers to act as mediums between experts and audiences, tackling both broad and nuanced topics and exploring through conversation the expert’s story, thought processes, and accumulated knowledge. But preparing, steering, and editing an interview as a stand-alone article poses challenges—and opportunities—that differ from those of a typical news story. The post Crafting Clear and Conversational Q&As appeared first on The Open Notebook.| The Open Notebook
El formato de entrevista permite a los escritores actuar como intermediarios entre los expertos y el público, abordando temas amplios y matizados, y explorando a través de la conversación la historia, los procesos de pensamiento y los conocimientos acumulados del experto. Sin embargo, preparar, dirigir y editar una entrevista como artículo por sí solo plantea retos —y oportunidades— que difieren de los de una noticia típica. The post Cómo construir entrevistas claras y coloquiales ...| The Open Notebook
Changing a name is a very personal decision. Unfortunately for trans journalists, it’s a decision that has to occur in public. Changing a byline can mitigate the abuse and harassment that trans journalists routinely face and help them honor their gender identity. Amid an increasingly hostile environment for trans people, their perspectives and stories have never been more important. Here are some strategies for staying safe and maintaining well-being while changing your byline as a trans jo...| The Open Notebook
Durante un viaje de reporteo a la Patagonia, los periodistas científicos Muriel Alarcón y Christian Elliott se unieron para cubrir un hito científico: la reproducción exitosa en un laboratorio de corales de agua fría que se encuentran en el fiordo Comau. Su decisión de visitar el fiordo —con un pescador local convertido en guía— le agregó profundidad a sus historias pero también provocó que se perdieran el desove de los corales. En esta entrevista, reflexionan sobre cómo su col...| The Open Notebook
During a reporting trip to Patagonia, science journalists Muriel Alarcón and Christian Elliott teamed up to cover a scientific milestone: a successful lab reproduction of cold-water corals originally found in the Comau Fjord. Their decision to visit the remote fjord—with a local fisherman turned guide—added depth to their stories but also caused them to miss the moment the corals spawned. In this interview, they reflect on how their collaboration enriched their reporting and how they ada...| The Open Notebook
Sarah Cox, British Columbia bureau lead at The Narwhal, has spent her career covering the province’s many environmental problems. Among these issues, her biggest bugbear has been Site C, the multibillion-dollar hydroelectric dam on the Peace River that has destroyed forests, arable soil, and Indigenous lands. Over 12 years of reporting, Cox has become the journalistic authority on Site C. She talks about long-term reporting, how these stories develop, and maintaining hope in the face of dev...| The Open Notebook
Bijal P. Trivedi is the inaugural recipient of the Sharon Begley Science Reporting Award, and her stories have appeared in National Geographic, Scientific American, Discover, New Scientist, and other publications. Trivedi is the recipient of a 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship and is now working on her next book, A Ghost in the Bloodline.| The Open Notebook
Dementia affects more than 57 million people worldwide, yet media coverage often reduces these experiences to either tragic narratives or false promises of cures. Journalists instead should center the experiences of people with dementia, skeptically navigate the complexity of Alzheimer’s research, and avoid harmful stereotypes. Through compassion and nuance, reporters can portray the reality of dementia as a complex lived experience filled with challenges, adaptation, dignity, and hope. The...| The Open Notebook
La demencia afecta a más de 57 millones de personas en el mundo, sin embargo, la cobertura mediática suele reducir estas experiencias a narrativas trágicas o falsas promesas de cura. En su lugar, los periodistas deberían centrarse en las experiencias de las personas con demencia, navegar con escepticismo la complejidad de la investigación sobre el Alzheimer y evitar estereotipos dañinos. Mediante la compasión y los matices, los periodistas pueden retratar la realidad de la demencia com...| The Open Notebook
Yessenia Funes is a journalist who has covered the various ecological crises humanity faces for over 10 years. Her writing has been featured in Vox, The Guardian, Scientific American, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Yale Climate Connections, and more. Her reporting has taken her to Nicaragua, Brazil, Palestine, Hawai'i, Puerto Rico, and more. When she’s not traveling to uplift the voices of society’s most oppressed, she’s at home in New York, cozying with her man and her cat.| The Open Notebook
We’ve been hard at work developing an interactive toolkit to help journalists on any beat bring more scientific evidence and context into their stories. This free resource, the Science Reporting Navigator, is being produced through a partnership between The Open Notebook and the Reynolds Journalism Institute. The post Scientific Evidence Belongs in Any Beat appeared first on The Open Notebook.| The Open Notebook
Navigating an interview with a scientist doesn’t just take prep and good interviewing skills. The hurdles can be psychological, too, requiring reporters to summon the nerve to interrupt and admit holes in their own knowledge. Every journalist, no matter how prepared, will at some point have to confront a conversation with a scientist that’s so dense with jargon, it’s almost unintelligible. But pressing sources to speak more plainly isn’t a weakness; it's a strength—essential to craf...| The Open Notebook
Una entrevista con un científico no solo requiere preparación y buenas habilidades para entrevistar. Los obstáculos también pueden ser psicológicos, ya que los periodistas tienen que armarse de valor para interrumpir y admitir lagunas en sus propios conocimientos. Todo periodista, por muy preparado que esté, tendrá que enfrentarse en algún momento a una conversación con un científico tan densa y llena de jerga que resultará casi ininteligible. Pero presionar a las fuentes para que ...| The Open Notebook
Los informes, comúnmente publicados por instituciones y organizaciones líderes, son una mina de oro para periodistas científicos: están llenos de datos, perspectivas y pistas que pueden provocar historias interesantes. Estos ofrecen a los periodistas un análisis profundo de temas que pueden revelar hallazgos importantes, los cuales los periodistas pueden cubrir o utilizar para complementar la información de otras historias. Sin embargo, a veces los informes pueden contener páginas y p...| The Open Notebook
Reports, often published by leading institutions and organizations, are goldmines for science journalists—packed with data, insights, and leads that can spark compelling stories. These offer journalists a deep-dive into topics that can reveal important findings, which reporters can cover or use to supplement reporting for other stories. However, sometimes reports can be pages worth of dry and technical language, making them hard to digest. In this roundtable conversation, reporters and edit...| The Open Notebook
Many reporters hesitate to invest time or money in a potential story without any guarantee of a return, but they overlook pre-reporting—or developing a story before it’s accepted for publication—at their own risk. A well-planned pre-reporting process helps journalists stress-test story ideas, solidify communication with sources, build confidence in a beat, nail pitches, and ultimately develop richer stories. Pre-reporting, when done well, may even boost your efficiency and save you time...| The Open Notebook
Muchos reporteros dudan en invertir tiempo o dinero en una posible historia sin garantía de remuneración, pero pasan por alto el prerreporteo —o desarrollar una historia antes de que sea aceptada para su publicación— bajo su propio riesgo. Un proceso de prerreporteo bien planeado ayuda a los periodistas a poner a prueba sus ideas, consolidar la comunicación con sus fuentes, generar confianza en un área de cobertura, redactar buenas propuestas y, en última instancia, desarrollar hist...| The Open Notebook
Las herramientas de IA generativa, como ChatGPT o DeepSeek, están cada vez más en boca de los líderes del sector periodístico. Sin embargo, dada la opacidad y el rápido desarrollo de esta tecnología, los periodistas deben considerar detenidamente sus ventajas, limitaciones y riesgos éticos antes de incorporarla a su práctica —además, deben aprendar cómo realmente funciona—.| The Open Notebook
