Blog Traffic Jam, Part 3 of 5: Three Weeks at the Science Media Centre

I hate to put things into categories before they’re finished. Developments can happen further down the line that paint what has already been processed in a different light; oftentimes, that light is more accurate than the names you had forced events under previously. This is the edge that historians have over journalists: even though journalists keep the advantage of timeliness, historians have the great expanse of other events that provide the right context for the period they study, so their assessments of what happened at a particular point are usually more in-depth, well-rounded, and (sorry, fellow journos!) fact-based.

That said, I’ve begun to categorize my internship time with the Science Media Centre. (Now I'm used to calling it "centre," not "center.") Even though the work is continuous and carries over from week to week, the long “weekends” I have in between stints there serve as fairly reliable bold lines between stages of work. (Due to visa restrictions that everyone in the group has to follow, I can only work three days a week, which means I’m only there on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.) It happened by accident, with little willing on my part, which might lend some credence to the categories as correct representations instead of artificial constructs in my head.

So, without further adieu, this is how my three weeks have been. They’ll just be a paragraph each so I don’t do too much pre-processing.


Week One (12-14 May): Thrown into the Fire

I got to my internship at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 12. There was a press briefing at 10:30. …a.m. There were two press briefings on Wednesday, and another one followed on Thursday. For each one (except one of the Wednesday ones, since it overlapped the other one), I welcomed journalists and panelists, got journalists’ names, and sat in on the briefing. Also, each day I skimmed all the major London newspapers (Guardian, Telegraph, Times, Mail, Independent, Sun, Mirror, Express), found the science stories, and wrote a synopsis of them to send to the other staff members. Along with that, I made up a coverage report of all the press that the first briefing had gotten. (Sadly, none, but still, it was something to do.) By Wednesday afternoon, I also was given the task of aggregating all the press work we had done during a week of swine flu coverage (27-30 April) to send to the scientists who had helped us.

…Wow. Looking back on that, I realize I did a lot. They trusted me! They really trusted me!


Week Two (19-21 May): Little Ado About Nothing

I did considerably less during the second week. There were no press briefings, I finished the daily science news reports quickly, and I finished the swine flu report the first day. The only major thing that happened was a big meeting among all the departments in the Royal Institution, which despite our technical independence from the RI we attended. (Ha, I said “we!”) But apparently, I got there early in the “volunteer season” (my words), because we had another volunteer (who also works at Nature) working during the week, a third one in on Thursday, and a fourth one who had meant to come in for an interview on Thursday but got sick.


Week Three (26-28 May): Much Ado about Something Big

There was another briefing on Tuesday, which started to bring me back into the groove of lots of work. Frankly, I was missing that, because the first week was exhilarating. (And getting journalists’ names at the briefings reminds me of taking photos for the IDS! Except it’s harder to get the names spelled right because “David Derbyshire” sounds like “David Darbishure.” I’ve asked someone’s name four times because of that. Don’t worry, I’ve gotten better.)

On Wednesday, the SMC director asked me to help advertize the World Conference of Science Journalists that a few people in the office are helping to organize. I jumped at the opportunity (internally, of course!) and started sending e-mails that afternoon. I’ll be doing that work until the end, when hopefully the reward will be free entry to some seminars, some free food, and maybe a trip to a science destination. Yay! [← This explains the banner and icon appearing on my blog now. They have them for free on the website.]

Also, the volunteer that got sick the week before came in on Thursday. She’ll be there Thursdays and Fridays, so our schedules will overlap for one day a week. It’s good to get someone closer to my level in the office: She’s 24, and ::gasp:: she’s a journalist!


So that’s what I’ve done so far. The people in the office are pretty laid-back and good at their jobs, and the other volunteers are cool, too. I’m predicting a great next four weeks.