| In the United
States and worldwide, the coverage of health, medical and science
issues in the print and electronic news media grows daily in
importance. In newspapers, magazines, books, broadcast and cable
television, radio and, increasingly, in the newer media ventures
of online news and the Internet, health, medical and science
topics receive prime attention and ever larger amounts of print
space and air time.
For young people seeking careers as journalists in the field,
and for the universities who educate and train them, the opportunities
are immense and so are the questions of how best to proceed.
Equally concerned are news media, who recruit new talent to
cover this complex and changing terrain, and working journalists,
who want to upgrade their skills in health or science coverage.
In 1994, a pilot project was begun to respond to these interests.
The Merck Foundation and Merck & Co., Inc., through John
Doorley, Merck's Executive Director of Corporate Communications,
asked Professor Jerome Aumente, Director of the Journalism
Resources Institute at Rutgers University, to design and administer
a new initiative, and the "Merck Science Journalism Student
Awards Program" was created through their joint planning.
In the first three years of the pilot program, faculty who
teach or have responsibilities for health, medical and science
journalism training have selected their top students to participate
with them in intensive seminars at Rutgers University and
in field visits with news media professionals and health science
researchers.
Together, the participants meet with top print and electronic
news health and science specialists who have included journalists
from Time magazine, the CBS Television Network, The Wall Street
Journal and the Cable News Network (CNN). The participants
visit with major research scientists from Merck & Co.,
Inc. at their laboratories. They confer with university specialists
in journalism, mass media and library and information studies.
At the Rutgers Continuing Education Conference Center, they
integrate the results of all this, along with their own personal
experience. For the students, it is a chance to reflect on
the careers they will soon embark upon. For the faculty, it
is an opportunity to confer with journalism professionals
and colleagues from other major universities and fine tune
their curriculum ideas. For the journalists, it is an opportunity
to share their experiences with the next generation and thoughtfully
reflect on ideas and responsibilities that too often they
have little time to address in the rush and distraction of
daily deadlines.
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