The
International
Science Writers Association (ISWA),
an organization of individual
membership, was formed in 1967 in response to the increasingly
international scope of science popularization and technical
communications. Today's science writer may need to cover stories
originating abroad by means of telephoned and written inquiries, to
commission reports by science writers abroad, or simply to be aware of
developments elsewhere. Moreover, the growing role of science and
technology in development has meant that science communicators in both
the industrialized and emerging nations now share many common goals.
All this necessitates an ever wider circle of contacts.
The primary objective
of ISWA is to provide such contacts and to enable members to assist
each other when working in a foreign country--sometimes by arranging
accommodations, by advising on the reliability of news sources, or by
facilitating contacts abroad--to say nothing of offering hospitality in
the intervals between work!
ISWA is of particular
value to individuals who do not have a national association of science
writers in their home countries. Yet, ISWA is not designed to replace
national bodies, or to discourage the linking of them in larger,
regional federations. Rather, ISWA hopes to serve as a means for
science communicators everywhere to share in the mutual benefits of a
professional organization and, perhaps, to serve as a bridge between
scientists and communicators on an international scale. Many individual
members with adequate advantages belong in order to help less
advantaged colleagues when they can.
ISWA works to obtain
improved science media facilities everywhere, to get recognition of
members on at least the same basis as the local media, and to maintain
and improve standards of science writing generally.
ISWA is at the
forefront of the World
Federation of Science Journalists
(see
the box below). For journalists who are not in a country or region with
an association, this is the place where you get representation within
the WFSJ.
To find out more about
ISWA benefits and to apply for membership, please go to our membership
page.
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WORLD FEDERATION
OF SCIENCE JOURNALISTS and
SOME HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE JOURNALISM |
Proposed at the
October 2001 Tokyo ICSTJ
conference and created at the November 2002 Brazil World Conference on
Science Journalism ".. a
world
federation of science journaliststhat
would serve as an umbrella
organisation for international, regional, and national science
journalism associations, as well as for individuals."The main WFSJ website
is at wfsj.org.
A
2008 narrative by former EUSJA president Bourne of the founding of that
first meeting can be found here.
This short history
of international
science writing organizations found here was written by ISWA
President James
Cornell for the massive "Encyclopedia of Science and
Technology
Communication" to be published in July 2010 by Sage
Publications. According to editor Susanna Priest, the
two-volume,
600,000-word tome will be priced at $395, which assumes the main
audience will be libraries rather than individuals. Several
other
ISWA members served as contributors and/or editors for this project.
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