NPR science journalist addresses USU students

by Aubrie Waldron

Joe Palca, a science correspondent for National Public Radio, visited Utah State on Thursday where he addressed a media smarts class about science journalism, political journalism and a series of stories called "Joe's Big Idea."

"Mostly, what I do is talk about science," Palca said.

Palca said that he doesn't pretend his reports on NPR are newsworthy in the sense that other news stories are. He used the example that knowing why some turtles have shells on their stomachs rather than their backs, one of his recent stories, is not going to vitally affect anyone's life.

"But," Palca said, "it's interesting."

According to Palca people have a tendency to avoid science journalism because science is hard to understand, and "people don't like to feel stupid."

"You need to try to understand what you don't know," Palca said.

Concerning political journalism Palca said that the main question the public should be asking about politicians is not if they're a Republican or Democrat but rather "What do these people actually stand for?"

"The media has allowed politicians to tell the story the way they think they should be telling it instead of telling it the way we, the people, think it should be told," Palca said.

Palca ended his address by talking about "Joe's Big Idea" which is a series of stories that focus on the "minds and motivations" of scientists and inventors. Palca said the purpose of the series is to help people understand scientific ideas and inventions.

"I'm not trying to convince anyone about anything," Palca said. "I just want people to know how incredibly cool science is."

Samantha Emmett, a USU student who is studying journalism, attended the speech and found Palca's experiences and insights interesting.

"As a journalism student, I liked his excitement about the stories he is writing," Emmett said. "He was very relatable and easy to understand."

Concerning journalism as a whole Palca asked, "What's the point?"

"The point is we're trying to tell the people out there what's going on out there."