Mailing address
Littauer
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA, 02138
Cristine Russell
Senior Fellow, Environment and Natural Resources Program
Contact:
Telephone: 617-496-4140
Fax: 617-495-1635
Email: cristine_russell@ksg.harvard.edu
Experience
Cristine Russell is an award-winning freelance journalist who has written about science, health and the environment for more than three decades. She was a former national science reporter for The Washington Post and The Washington Star and is the current President of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, a group of distinguished journalists and scientists dedicated to improving science news coverage for the general public. Ms. Russell is also a past president of the National Association of Science Writers and a contributor to A Field Guide for Science Writers (2006). She serves on the boards of the USC Annenberg School for Communication, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Commonwealth Fund and Mills College. She is an honorary member of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, and has a biology degree from Mills College. She was a Spring 2006 Fellow at the KSG Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. Her research focuses on the future of science writing and how to improve news media coverage of controversial scientific issues, from climate change to avian flu. She is organizing workshops for reporters and scientists and planning a book on current controversies in science, health and the environment.
19 June 2009
"Science Journalism Goes Global"
Op-Ed, Science, volume 324
By Cristine Russell, Senior Fellow, Environment and Natural Resources Program
When swine flu struck swiftly in Mexico, it created a challenge not only for international public health officials but also for journalists around the world assigned to follow the unfolding story. They needed to explain, in the face of great uncertainty and a nonstop news cycle, what the novel influenza A (H1N1) virus was and the potential dangers it posed. It was a difficult story handled most capably by experienced health and science reporters.
March 6, 2009
Washington Post Pools Its Resources
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Columbia Journalism Review
By Cristine Russell, Senior Fellow, Environment and Natural Resources Program
In the latest of many recent changes at The Washington Post, the management has announced a new plan to coordinate all health, science and environmental coverage paper-wide—from national to lifestyle—under a single editor.
March 4, 2009
Globe Kills Health/Science Section, Keeps Staff
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Columbia Journalism Review
By Cristine Russell, Senior Fellow, Environment and Natural Resources Program
This week, The Boston Globe stopped running its highly regarded Monday Health/Science section and began placing its content in the paper’s trendy new “g” lifestyle tabloid, as well as its business section. It is the latest casualty at the struggling but storied New England paper, located in what is arguably the center of the health, science, and technology universe. According to health and science editor Gideon Gil, the Globe’s nine-person specialty staff is expected to stay intact—at least for now—and coverage of everything from stem cells to climate change will still have high priority in the paper.
October 17, 2008
"Juggling Beats, Localizing Climate"
Op-Ed, Columbia Journalism Review
By Cristine Russell, Senior Fellow, Environment and Natural Resources Program
When it comes to tackling a big issue like climate change, reporters have their hands full getting a grip on the science and the policy options. To get help, twenty-eight print, television, and Web journalists from a variety of beats and backgrounds who were invited to a three-day conference aimed at arming them with the tools for writing about climate change in a meaningful way.
July 17, 2008
"Climate Change: Now What?"
Journal Article, Columbia Journalism Review
By Cristine Russell, Senior Fellow, Environment and Natural Resources Program
Media coverage of climate change is at a crossroads, as it moves beyond the science of global warming into the broader arena of what governments, entrepreneurs, and ordinary citizens are doing about it.
March 24, 2008
"The Survival of Investigative Journalism"
Journal Article, Columbia Journalism Review
By Cristine Russell, Senior Fellow, Environment and Natural Resources Program
A recent Harvard journalism roundtable featuring prize-winning investigative reporters who have uncovered health scandals from Iraq to China suggested that while a few big papers-at least for the moment-are still putting a premium on investigative coverage, other regional and local papers are struggling to do so.
December 11, 2007
"Celebrities, scientists and polar bears, oh my"
Op-Ed, Chicago Tribune
By Cristine Russell, Senior Fellow, Environment and Natural Resources Program
What a difference a year makes. In 2006, global warming stories were still struggling for front-page attention. By 2007, climate change was the issue du jour and "going green" a daily staple in news stories about everything from home building to Wall Street banking. Much of the credit for this dramatic transformation certainly goes to former Vice President Al Gore and the UN panel of climate change scientists who received the Nobel Peace Prize on Monday.
Spring 2006
"Covering Controversial Science: Improving Reporting on Science and Public Policy"
Working Paper
By Cristine Russell, Senior Fellow, Environment and Natural Resources Program
As the pace of new developments in science and technology quickens, journalists are increasingly confronted with covering complicated technical information as well as the potential social, legal, religious, and political consequences of scientific research. Avian flu, embryonic stem cell research, genetic engineering, global warming, teaching of evolution, and bio-terrorism are just a few of the topics on journalists' plates today.
