Conference of science journalists in Dakar, Senegal

Together with more than 50 science journalists from different West African countries, France, Canada and Switzerland, I attended the first “Conférence des Journalistes Scientifiques Francophones” in Dakar, the capitol of Senegal from 10. to 16. October 2022. The 6-day program was packed with presentations, talks, workshops, and excursions. Most activities during the conference were related to the question, what role science journalism has to play in face of the current climate crisis. I was invited to give a workshop about multimedia storytelling in science journalism. It was a great pleasure to organize this workshop together with documentary film producer Vincent Gaullier and Natacha Scheidhauer, who works as journalist for scientific youth magazines. The conference was a great opportunity to exchange with colleagues from Africa. Once again, I realized, how challenging their working circumstances are and I have a lot of respect for their enormous engagement to get across scientific facts in often very polarized political environments.