Teaching journalists for an accurate information Sample Clauses

Teaching journalists for an accurate information. The quality of information provided by mass media relies on the ability of the journalist to understand its content, its meaning, before it is delivered to the public. Since not all journalists have a scientific background, their performance in communication about IR should be improved. A good practice in this regard is: - When journalists reporting about ionizing radiation related aspects are previously familiarized with this topic, either by short teaching sessions given by the institutional sources or, even better, by independent scientists, or by involving them in projects dealing with the topics of concern. This happened in Slovenia, when ARAO, the radioactive waste management organization, was trying to reach the public also through the national TV program. Already in early stage of waste repository site selection the first contacts were established with journalists from national TV and later they were involved in the international projects such as COWAM, CIP and XXXX. The international events inside these projects provided possibilities for journalists to obtain information about different challenges of radioactive waste management in Europe, to gain access to experts from other official organizations and be in contacts with participants from civil society (like local communities and non-governmental organizations). They were also able to visit different radioactive waste repositories in operation across the Europe. The approach to invite journalists to these events turned out to be very productive. Later on, the journalists produced several documentaries on international practices related to radioactive waste management, possible approaches across the world, the challenges of Slovenian site selection for repository and other nuclear topics (like nuclear energy, radon in homes, and medical use of nuclear applications). The connections with those journalists have lasted until now and guarantee the use of a direct and trustworthy source of information for any nuclear topic. The main challenge in establishing long term contacts with journalists and assuring their regular engagement is however the current changes in this profession and the way it is functioning now. More and more journalists are not specialized and are hired not on permanent bases. Therefore they do not have adequate knowledge on the topics and are not specialized. They need to cover the issues in a short time, many times also the media is encouraging sensationalistic reporting. Under s...