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Latin American Journalists Get
Science Training at UCSD and Institute of the Americas
By Shelley Dubois | July 28, 2006
Thirty-five journalists from 14 Latin American countries arrived on the UCSD campus this month to sharpen their
science reporting skills at an 11-day science journalism workshop organized and hosted by the Institute of the Americas.
Now in its third year, the Jack F. Ealy Conference on Science Journalism has trained more than 130 newspaper, television
and radio journalists throughout Latin America in reporting about science, a subject of increasing importance in many Latin
American countries developing technology-based economies.
This year’s conference took place July 12 to 22 and featured lectures and workshops by scientists, engineers
and news professionals from UCSD and other institutions in Mexico and the San Diego community.
“This is a great opportunity for journalists
to obtain specialized training in science writing
and learn first hand about leading research in the
field. We hope that this opportunity will not
only aid in their professional development but also
foster through their work greater interest and support
for the sciences in Latin America,” said Daniela
Kelly, director of Science Journalism for the Institute
of the Americas.
Juan Francisco Ealy Ortiz, owner of the Mexican newspaper El Universal, provided fellowships for 16 of the
attending journalists. These select few were chosen out of 400 total applicants. Companies such as PEMEX, Pfizer,
and the State of Hidalgo, Mexico sponsored the other 19 attendees.
Many of the fellows completed articles for newspapers
in their home countries during the conference.
In addition to these projects, Lynne Friedman of the
San Diego Science Writers Association and Sergio Muñoz,
contributing editor from the L.A. Times distributed
and edited writing assignments for the journalists
to provide them with feedback on style and content.
The workshop offered the journalists a chance to
interact one-on-one with scientists and other speakers
as well as the opportunity to continue to use them
as resources in the future. The Ealy workshop
also provided the journalists with the contact information
of the other participants in hopes that the group
of writers from all over Latin America will use each
other as resources.
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