Great point. This is is also a perennial issue with science journalism or journalism in general. When I first spoke to a science journalist in 2019, while working as a technical writer, wondering if I should try to switch careers, they gave me a lot of encouragement. But in retrospect, after spending a few years making efforts to work in the area, I came to realize I would’ve much rather wished for a much franker and more brutal take on the lack of opportunity in the industry.
In journalism, in general, there’s kind of a tendency to just stay totally silent about the fact that it’s so difficult to find funding for public interest writing or public interest work in general. Perhaps because the broader media space often mixes public interest work with more generic, non-public interest content that sells (eg TikTok, etc), and thereby does obtain financial backing; I don’t know.
Great point. This is is also a perennial issue with science journalism or journalism in general. When I first spoke to a science journalist in 2019, while working as a technical writer, wondering if I should try to switch careers, they gave me a lot of encouragement. But in retrospect, after spending a few years making efforts to work in the area, I came to realize I would’ve much rather wished for a much franker and more brutal take on the lack of opportunity in the industry.
In journalism, in general, there’s kind of a tendency to just stay totally silent about the fact that it’s so difficult to find funding for public interest writing or public interest work in general. Perhaps because the broader media space often mixes public interest work with more generic, non-public interest content that sells (eg TikTok, etc), and thereby does obtain financial backing; I don’t know.