The Need for Canadian Science Blogs

The Council of Canadian Academies released an assessment last week entitled, “Science Culture: Where Canada Stands.” The report is the result of an in-depth, independent assessment to investigate the state of Canada’s science culture.

In an editorial post over at Science Borealis, I talked about a few of the highlights from that report as they pertain to blogging, social media, and science journalism. Here’s a short summary of that:

Dedicated science coverage is notably absent from the majority of newspapers and other print journalism in Canada. … none of the top 11 newspapers by weekly readership in Canada has a dedicated science section…Few Canadian newspapers have dedicated science journalists on staff. (Sec 5.3.2, p. 120)

With the decline in formal media coverage of science, the politics around the muzzling of scientists, and the eagerness of the Canadian public to learn more about science and technology, there exists a large gap that can be filled by science bloggers in this country.

Certainly, in this internet age, Canadians can read science from any number of international sources, but every country needs its own voices, opinions, and perspectives.

While a lack of Canadian sources may not result in an overall constraint on the availability of science content due to ready access to periodicals from other countries, it does limit exposure to content targeted at Canadians and about Canadian researchers or institutions (Sec 5.6, p. 140. Bold mine.)