New remedy for science journalism in Germany 

Cancer research, climate change and cloning: Sciences become more and more important for day-to-day life – or at least in the day-to-day news. Therefore a well informed and critical translator is needed - a journalist who is able to understand and classify news of the scientific community as well as to communicate new inventions or theories in a comprehensible way. That is why our new Bachelor’s Program in Science Journalism combines natural sciences with journalism. The degree is the first in Europe to combine sciences and journalism teaching.

It started in October 2003 and has already been acknowledged in the media as an important academic education. A great number of the most famous German scientific journalists as well as correspondents from Science and Nature have been guest lecturers during the last few terms. The course of studies is situated at the Institute for Journalism at Dortmund University – one of only a few academic journalism programmes in Germany. The next step is to establish the new degree in the international journalism and scientific community.

Our students are trained in different kinds of skills: They learn how to collect information, to double-check the facts and finally to write articles and to create TV and radio reports. Furthermore, they acquire a general knowledge in sciences as well as a deeper understanding in one of the following three subjects: sciences (biological sciences and medicine or physics), engineering technology (mechanical or electrical engineering) or data analysis and statistics. In the journalistic part of the education students produce reports that are closely connected with the content in their science lessons.

During the four years of study, students also train intensively on the job. In addition to the campus media, a one-year traineeship is compulsory for the degree. The aim is to educate journalists who are able to explain news of the scientific world and to classify these pieces of information for readers, listeners or viewers. Students who have successfully passed the Bachelor’s programme can work as scientific journalists in radio or TV stations as well as in newspaper newsrooms or public relations offices. Graduated students also have the possibility of completing their Master degree in one additional year.

The programme has already received an award of the Volkswagen Foundation and the Bertelsmann Foundation. 

To learn more about the study courses at the Institute for Journalism, please read the flyer "Teaching and research at Dortmund’s Institute for Journalism: hands-on and in-depth" (2007).