the-BA : Media Fellow web diary

Who is Ainsley?

Hello, I’m Ainsley Newson - one of the 2005 BA Media Fellows. I’ll be working with Mark Henderson, science correspondent at The Times.

I’m a post-doc in the Medical Ethics Unit at Imperial College London and the London Genetics Knowledge Park. My work focuses on ethics and clinical genetics, including genetic testing and pre-natal screening. Much of my time is spent with London’s clinical genetics centres, advising on difficult cases and giving workshops. It’s a great job in a field often peppered with controversy.

I’m really looking forward to the Fellowship. I hope to gain an insider’s appreciation for what makes a newsworthy science story and the effective jargon-free communication of difficult concepts. I also want to learn how to ‘say less and mean more’ - this diary entry has benefited from several drafts!

I must admit to being slightly nervous about starting, as I’m sure all Fellows are. I’ve spent time this week trying to do some background reading; devouring The Times each day to get a feel for what goes where and why. I’ve also been reading an excellent book on writing for newspapers, which is full of grammatical rules I haven’t thought about in 15 years.

Read her last entry

Monday 8 August

The Times newsroom. Not straight from the movies, but not quite what I was expecting either. It’s a vast open-plan office humming with ringing phones and TV sets tuned to news channels. Well over a hundred people sit in this space; very different to my university department.

After arriving and introductions, I talked with Mark about his story ideas, learned about the major sources of news feeds and then settled down to read emerging copy on my computer terminal. Both ‘wires’ and in-house stories are available; I watched as pieces emerged from initial press releases to something more substantial. The science and health team have filed quite a few stories.

Some of the day’s news was curious, with samples of crustless bread handed around for a staff taste-test.

I met with the team from ‘Body and Soul’, the Saturday health, medical and lifestyle supplement. I clumsily put forward a few story ideas which thankfully weren’t met with laughter. I’ll speak with the medical editor on Wednesday to explore these in more detail and will help them out with research later this week.

I also observed the afternoon news conference, at which news editors meet with the editor to sort out what will appear in the next day’s edition.

All in all, it’s been an absorbing but surprisingly fleeting day.

Tuesday 9 August

First up today: a press briefing on transgenic animals at the Science Media Centre. Three experts spoke about forthcoming challenges, such as using mouse models of disease to determine what genes do in the post-genomic era. The journalist’s questions showed me I do have to stop thinking like an academic at a conference. Still, I did manage to ask one question that seemed OK.

On the tube afterwards I made full use having Mark captive and pitched a few story ideas. However whilst they would make for interesting academic articles, none of them were ‘newsy’ enough. Yet he did like an issue related to one of my ideas so I’ll now follow that up.

I’ve done my first writing: a ‘Fact Box’ for one of Mark’s pieces. Since the paper changed to a compact format, many articles have a series of dot points to complement the article. Drafting it was not simple; it required further research and lots of cutting down. It took me nearly as long to write that as it did for Mark to write the whole article. Hopefully the piece will go in to tomorrow’s edition, though some things I really liked yesterday got spiked.

Wednesday 10 August

Yesterday’s piece was spiked, which was a shame. A thick skin is definitely necessary in newspapers. Several other papers carried another story from the press conference, about red-heads and higher pain tolerance (not true in my case. I should say). As this wasn’t really new news, Mark hadn’t pursued it.

I was supposed to be spending the day on the news desk, observing stories as they happen and seeing what does and does not make it in to the final edition. However one of the emerging stories was of interest to me, on paternity testing. As the news editors wanted someone with an ethics background to write an ‘expert’ side-bar, I was happy to help. So after the morning news conference I set about meeting a 2-hour deadline. Normally, writing 500 words on ethics and paternity testing would take me some time (days?) as I would do lots of research and reading. But here I just had to write it, after a couple of fleeting Google searches and one phone call. I drafted 500 words with the help of Mark and Sam (the health correspondent), who showed me how to make it more newsy and less like an Agony Aunt column.

As I was finishing the news desk asked me to cut it to 350, which is a common thing to happen. After helping Sam with a Fact Box, we filed all the pieces together. Then it was off to the pub for what I felt was a well-deserved pint.

Thursday 11 August

What a surreal day. I arrived this morning to write up yesterday’s diary, look at some releases and help Mark with a piece (another Fact Box).

Things quickly changed. My short ‘expert’ column on ethics and paternity testing had gone in; I was quite pleased with how it turned out, despite the loss of some erudite prose. Requests for interviews rolled in, and I found myself in a taxi on the way to Millbank, to be interviewed live on Sky News and BBC News 24. Never having done TV, let alone a live broadcast, I was slightly scared. I had a mini-makeover at Sky and was soon sitting in a studio staring down a camera lens… a few (long) questions later and it was all over. All my ‘key messages’ went out the window but it went OK. Then it was on to the BBC (one floor down) I did it all again in front of a virtual Big Ben. A better attempt this time as I actually remembered some of the things I wanted to say.

Back in the office and more calls were fielded, this time from LBC news and BBC3 TV news. I pre-recorded with LBC over the phone and tonight will go to BBC television centre for a sofa-based chat on BBC3 news. Who would have thought that a BA Media Fellowship would bring such moments of grandeur? I’m almost looking forward to tomorrow, when everyone will have forgotten about me.

Friday 12 August

A much quieter day, to my relief. First was another press briefing at the Science Media Centre, this time about heatwaves. The South East of England is gradually warming up: our summers are now 50% drier than they used to be. Speakers advised on how to cope with the heat, siestas being one favourable method.

Back in the office, I wrote my first article from a media release. I had identified a potential piece yesterday morning about cancer and Mark thought it would make a good ‘Sunday for Monday’ piece – it is filed today but if it goes in it won’t appear until Monday. As print journalists don’t want to work every Sunday, much of the content of Monday’s paper is prepared in advance. However, the news team (including the specialist reporters) do have to work one Sunday in four. The piece turned out OK and I’m starting to get a feel for what goes where.

Later in the day I trained in using the in-house editorial system and worked up some ideas for topical pieces for Body&Soul, Saturday’s health and lifestyle supplement.

Monday will see me go out of my comfort zone – off to a launch at the Science Museum. It’s engineering-focussed so I’ve been reading up!

Read week 2 of Ainsley's diary

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