Good News for Science News

By Nancy Atkinson - November 10, 2009 at 6:32 PM UTC | uncategorized
discovery-news.jpg

Here's some refreshing news! In an era when mainstream media is cutting back on their science departments and science reporting, the Discovery Channel has just made an investment to step-up their science news with the re-launch of their new and improved news website,

Discovery News.

In the middle of it all is our very own

Ian O'Neill,

who is also the producer for

Discovery News Space.

The "new" part of Discovery News is that Ian's work on the space side is now integrated into a higher profile, redesigned news site. Ian and I had a chance to talk today about this good news for science news.

"Discovery News was always the

Discovery Channel website's

news source. It has been around for about 11 years," Ian told me, "and people started coming to the Discovery Channel website specifically to read Discovery News, so it was always like a little news agency bubbling around in the background."

About 18 months ago Discovery News put together three different "hubs" to focus on space, Earth and technology. Those three headings are now given top billing on the new site, integrating news and blogs together.

Ian and I talked about how Universe Today wears both hats as both a news site and a blog, and Discovery News is doing that as well, but in a bigger way with over 20 correspondents, producers and editors.

"We know we have to have both strong traditional reported items as well as opinion based pieces, and we now have a nice relationship between the two," Ian said. "Blogging has become a major news source for a lot of people, as a lot of the blogs are now written by science professionals. There doesn't seem to be that big distinction or chasm anymore between a reported item and what is opinion, and often the two fade in between."

All the Discovery News contributors have professional backgrounds in their fields, and it's great to see a "big" company investing in science-based journalism.

"They have created the opportunity for Discovery News to relaunch, and given us the resources to perhaps be a one-of-a kind science news site," Ian said.

Check out

Discovery News.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com