Bob Meyers

President
National Press Foundation
Journalist to Journalist program
Washington D.C.

Remarks delivered during the 4th Asia-Pacific Symposium on Press and Scientific and
Social Progress

November 19, 2004

“Finding a Common Language for Journalists and Scientists”

To the chairmen, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

Thank you the honor of inviting me to this unique and important conference and for your
generous hospitality.

I have been asked to speak about finding a common language between scientists and
journalists. I also want to talk about the second generation of AIDS coverage. There are a
number of points of commonality.

The first thing to do is to acknowledge the role of the Internet – which has become our
true global utility.

Three years ago, Zhou Guangzhao, at the 3rd Third Asia-Pacific Symposium on Press and
Scientific and Social Progress, said that the Internet had become the fastest-growing
means for information transmission in China.

Professor Zhou Guangzhao cited estimates that by 2005, the number of computers in
China connected to the Internet will reach 40 million and Internet users will total 200
million. A recent news report held that about 47 percent of households in Beijing have
connected to the Internet. Two thirds of those families chose broad band connection
services, while others prefer to use the dial-up access. 1

The Internet is thus a spigot, letting loose a gusher of information.

Here is another figure of unbelievable size: in just six years, in 2010, there could be as
many as 10 or 20 million people in China with HIV/AIDS, according to reliable
authorities. 2

1
Cited in China Economic Net, October 12, 2004.
2
Especially, UNAIDS

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Regardless of how many journalists there are in China, ordinary citizens no longer need
to rely exclusively on them for facts and figures. Through the Internet, they can go to our
colleagues in the science and medical fields for the raw data and a technical perspective.

Because of rumors and falsehoods, of course, what citizens DO need to rely on journalists
for is an understanding of that information that goes beyond data.

The role of journalists continues to evolve, as it has ever since the first reporter wrote
down what he or she observed. Journalists will increasingly need to speak a language that
acknowledges the precision of scientific discourse, but is able to channel and shape the
data stream available through the Internet spigot.

Ten or 20 million people at risk of AIDS have a direct and mortal stake in that.

There is an evolving role for scientists in all this, as assisting the need of general-interest
journalists to understand the implications of the scientific data becomes all the more
critical.

There is a major role for corporations and private organizations to play as well, in using
their unique knowledge and skills in actively supporting the education of journalists who
will help educate the public.

In the Internet Age information can never be hidden for very long. Governments must
take on the conscious role of telling the public as soon as they know something;
governments that fail to disclose information will assuredly lose the trust of their publics.
Hiding information never succeeds, and thanks to the Internet, it fails faster.

My colleague Professor Li Xiguang, Academic Dean, School of Journalism and

Communications, Tsinghua University, informs me that news about the SARS virus
reached 40 million mobile phone users via text messaging on February 8, 45 million
more on February 9, and 45 million more on February 10. Only days and weeks later did
the Xinhua news service, the South China Morning Post, and the New York Times do
their stories.

I believe we are in the second generation of news coverage of HIV/AIDS. In the first
generation – stemming from the 1981 article describing what became known as HIV –
through to the epidemiological projections in countries around the world, much of the
effort of journalists was directed at understanding the epidemic, relying heavily on
doctors and medical professionals to describe vectors of transmissions, vaccine
development, prevention strategies, funding mechanisms.

In this second generation, I believe it will be the stories and broadcasts about the
implications of HIV/AIDS that catch the attention of the reading and viewing publics
around the world. The failure to do this will be truly a crisis for the public and an
abrogation of the responsibility of the press.

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HIV/AIDS is a global crisis. It is an economic crisis an issue of national security, and at
all times it is a matter of human rights, female empowerment, personal choice and
individual behavior.

The common language of public health for scientists and journalists today must continue
to include traditional concerns such as viral and bacterial diseases, air pollution, impure
water. It must recognize, for example, that malaria and tuberculosis are age-old scourges
that continue to impact the developing world.

Our common language between journalists and scientists, deeply steeped in modern
notions of the public’s health, must also look at behavior-related conditions such as
obesity and tobacco-related cancers, unintentional injuries like auto crashes, gun usage,
alcohol abuse, etc. It must look at the “man-made” environment, where unchecked
factories produce pollution that cause diseases such as asthma, emphysema, etc.

It is a thrill and an honor for journalists to write about science in a thoroughly accurate
yet readable way, gaining respect and appreciation from the technical and the lay
audiences. Many of the distinguished science writers with us this week from the United
Kingdom, Canada, Australia and elsewhere achieve that high goal.

I would add two names to the list – Jon Cohen of Science magazine, and Laurie Garrett,
now with the Council on Foreign Relations and formerly at Newsday. Jon wrote a
wonderful and accessible series on AIDS in Asia last year, that is available on the
Internet. Some of Laurie’s work on the collapse of the global public health system
foreshadowed what we have seen with SARS and what we are talking about this week.
Her comprehensive books provide a wealth of story ideas as well.

Now I want to present a somewhat unconventional personal opinion -- the public often
doesn’t realize there IS such a thing as public health and so has a hard time understanding
that there might be a public health crisis.

I may be concerned about MY health, and you may be concerned about YOUR health,
but until we realize that public health is health across all of OUR populations we may be
slow in responding to crises like SARS and AIDS.

We have heard the raw numbers – 10 or 20 million infected people by the year 2010 in
China alone -- but let’s look at the implications:

When a communicable disease runs unchecked in a society, people will sicken, and die.
Children will drop out of school to care for a sick parent, or become orphans when the
parents die. In a society without adults, children can turn to mischief, then petty crime.
When young women are uneducated, they can turn to sex work for incomes.

The social fabric will be torn. It does not take much. The reality is that AIDS changes
everything -- including our adult perceptions of when to start educating children.

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Twenty years ago, when HIV/AIDS was first reaching the public consciousness, it was
often said that there was no known cure. Technically that was true. The first step to health
when it came to AIDS was – not to get it. That involved prevention. And that involved
education. Education for understanding. Education to break own stereotypes. Education
to break down stigma. Education involves communication. Communication involves
journalism.

Journalists in many ways are educators, shedding light on dark corners. But the people
they – we – turn to are often scientists. And so I would ask that the dedicated scientists in
this audience renew their responsibility to help educate journalists; and I would ask all
the committed journalists in the audience to intensify the effort to get scientists to speak a
common language that can be used to communicate with the public.

The National Press Foundation is an independent, non-government foundation dedicated

to journalism education. For our part in the fight against AIDS and other illnesses, we
have developed a strategy called the Journalist to Journalist (J2J) program. This is an on-
going attempt to educate developing world journalists about HIV/AIDS.

At this conference of journalists and scientists and academicians, let me close with what
Peter Piot, the executive director of UNAIDS, said at one of our meetings:

“When it comes to AIDS, journalists can have more of an impact than doctors.”

Thank you for your attention and your warm hospitality.