By the Australian Science Media Centre
The Australian Science Media Centre's (AusSMC) recent Collaborative Journalism Project has been awarded the Inspiring Project in Science Communication award at the Australian Science Communicators (ASC) conference in Perth this week.
The award, presented for the first time this year, recognises an impactful science communication project that demonstrates innovation or a best-practice led approach.
The AusSMC's Collaborative Journalism Project took place across five Australian newsrooms in late 2023 into early 2024. Across the newsrooms, 28 journalists collaborated with 48 scientists and other experts to produce 75 articles, seven videos and 28 infographics for the following five news series:
About Bloody Time - News.com.au
The Carbon Series - Australian Community Media Agricultural Team
The Future of Fertility – SBS News
The Brisbane Life Study – Brisbane Times
Vape Nation – Pedestrian
AusSMC CEO Dr Susannah Eliott said the collaborative journalism project had been a great experience for the team and had achieved more than anticipated.
“We’re thrilled to be the inaugural winners of this new award. The award is not just for us at the AusSMC but for all the journalists and scientists working together in the newsrooms - they not only embraced the idea but produced some fantastic unique and in-depth content,” Dr Eliott said.
“We are very grateful to the Walkley Foundation and the META Public Interest Journalism fund, which supported the project. Without this support, the project would not have happened.”
News.com.au editor Kerry Warren said their women's health series, About Bloody Time, generated two million page views and "extraordinarily high engagement" across social media platforms.
“The project was a great success and had a significant impact with our audience," she said.
"Our goal was for our content to prompt 20,000 signatures to the petition for a new Medicare Item Number for pelvic pain consultations by the end of the week-long campaign. This was achieved in under 30 hours, and the petition attracted more than 50,000 signatures. The campaign objective also gained the support of every state health minister and was acknowledged by the federal health minister."
Australian Community Media Agricultural News Editor Penelope Arthur said the AusSMC had provided access to quality expert sources, giving the journalists involved with the project confidence to cover the technical subject of carbon farming.
"Partnering with the Australian Science Media Centre on the Carbon Series was an excellent experience for our newsroom," she said.
"We believed this series was an opportunity to not only educate our readers but also our journalists about carbon farming."
See the full release on the AusSMC website here.
This article originally appeared in Science Deadline, a weekly newsletter from the AusSMC. You are free to republish this story, in full, with appropriate credit.
Contact: Olivia Henry
Phone: +61 8 7120 8666
Email: info@smc.org.au