The Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting, publisher of Environment Writer, is about to begin a series of structured "by invitation" workshops aimed at addressing impediments to effective science communications through the mass media.

With support from the National Science Foundation and partnerships involving three federal agencies, Metcalf will host intensive day-and-a-half workshops involving leading climate and marine scientists and science and environmental reporters, editors, and educators. Along with two participating graduate students representing science and journalism programs, eight to 10 scientists and print and broadcast journalists will participate in each of the planned series of workshops.

The workshops will focus not on current climate and marine science "hard news," but rather on the scientist/journalist exchanges that lead -- or don't lead -- to science news being reported through the mass media.

Partners involved in the project, along with the National Science Foundation's Paleoclimate Program, Division of Atmospheric Sciences, include:

• the nonprofit Environmental Law Institute (ELI), through a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency;
• The National Centers for Coastal and Ocean Science (NCCOS), the scientific research arm of the National Ocean Service within the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA);
• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), through funding provided to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the partner group that will host one of the two opening workshops.

"It's critical that the scientific community understand the 'inviolable principles' under which the American media operate in our democratic system," said workshop coordinator Bud Ward, editor of Environment Writer and an affiliate of ELI, the Metcalf Institute, and URI's Graduate School of Oceanography, where Metcalf is based.

"At the same time, it's essential that the media understand and appreciate the practices, mores, standards, and ethics underlying sound science. With a mutual understanding of both disciplines' 'inviolable principles,' this effort will work to identify 'common enemies' that serve neither science, the responsible practice of journalism, nor a more informed citizenry."

Plans for the workshops have evolved over several years and from an earlier focus on journalism background workshops aimed at improving understanding of potential climate change impacts in various regions of the country. With support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Air and Radiation, those workshops had been conducted by Environment Writer editorial staff prior to its move to the Metcalf Institute in mid-2003. That EPA funding now resides with ELI, which represents the full spectrum of the environmental bar.

With the new grant from the National Science Foundation to URI's Metcalf Institute, the workshop element is again officially coupled with Environment Writer. In addition to URI's Metcalf Institute, the partnership behind the coming workshops also includes Scripps, NCCOS, and, through its grant to Scripps, NASA.

The first of the five day-and-a-half workshops will be held at the W. Alton Jones Campus of URI, beginning at 5 p.m. on Sunday, November 9, and concluding at noon on Tuesday, November 11. The initial workshop will focus on atmospheric and climate science, with marine science and oceanography also figuring heavily in the first and subsequent workshops.

Invited workshop participants will represent a broad spectrum of the scientific community and a cross-section of print and broadcast journalists and editors having substantial experience in reporting on science-related issues.

A concluding workshop report, to be developed by workshop planning staff, will be provided to invited participants in each succeeding workshop to avoid each workshop's "reinventing the wheel," and each workshop will pass on to succeeding workshops an unfinished business "to do" list.

A planned outcome of the full range of the workshops will be a major new report on climate and marine science communications issues and the mass media.