{"id":199141,"date":"2015-08-13T17:15:37","date_gmt":"2015-08-13T20:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=199141"},"modified":"2015-10-06T17:34:47","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T20:34:47","slug":"reporting-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/reporting-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Reporting science"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Linotype

Ag\u00eancia Estado<\/span>Linotype shop at the newspaper Estado de S.Paulo: an artisanal processAg\u00eancia Estado<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The brand of journalism devoted to covering all fields of scientific research displays its own unique characteristics while it also belongs to the realm of general news reporting. This is the first in a series of articles on the origins, state of the art, and future of science journalism to be published in commemoration of the 20th<\/sup> anniversary of the premier issue of the bulletin Not\u00edcias FAPESP<\/em>, released in August 1995 and transformed into Pesquisa FAPESP<\/em> when issue 47 came out in October 1999.<\/p>\n

The earliest origins of science journalism in Brazil can be traced back to the early 19th<\/sup> century newspapers O Correio Braziliense<\/em> and O Patriota<\/em>, explored in Pesquisa FAPESP<\/em> Issue No. 100 (\u201cThe origins of scientific diffusion\u201d). Information on the scientists who wrote for newspapers at the dawn of the 20th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

Profiled in these pages, two pioneers provide a portrait of the more recent past: J\u00falio Abramczyk and Jos\u00e9 Hamilton Ribeiro. Both were just starting out as reporters back in the day when type was set by machines called linotypes, using molten lead. Now boasting more than 60 years worth of experience, the two men are still going strong.<\/p>\n

\"Good

Reproduction Eduardo Cesar <\/span>Good sources: Walter Leser (left<\/em>), Abrah\u00e3o Rotberg (center<\/em>), both of Unifesp, and Abramczyk, in 1962Reproduction Eduardo Cesar <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

DR. REPORTER
\n<\/strong>
\nWhen J\u00falio Abramczyk, 17, began working at the S\u00e3o Paulo paper O Tempo <\/em>in 1949, newsroom desks were all but buried under gigantic typewriters, and telephones were still a rarity. As a copyeditor, Abramczyk tweaked grammar, while later, as a reporter, he learned to write fast, pushing out at least three stories a day. With typewriters clattering and journalists talking loudly back and forth as they puffed away on cigarettes, news offices were noisy places compared to today\u2019s quiet environments. \u201cIt was good. There was always someone around to answer a question,\u201d said 82-year-old \u201cDr. J\u00falio,\u201d as he is known, speaking in the living room of his home in the S\u00e3o Paulo neighborhood of Higien\u00f3polis.<\/p>\n

Abramczyk, who worked at Santa Catarina Hospital as a cardiologist for 47 years, until 2013, is one of the forerunners of science journalism in Brazil, a field he helped establish even before it had a name. He took part in forming and strengthening associations and fostering debates, conferences, and courses for journalists. In 2009, he celebrated 50 years of continuous work as a journalist for Folha de S.Paulo<\/em> and he does not even consider dropping his Saturday column Plant\u00e3o M\u00e9dico<\/em> (Doctor on call), which he now writes at home and delivers online.<\/p>\n

Abramczyk spends several hours a day hunting down articles to cover in his 200- to 300-word column. On the afternoon of July 14, 2015, one of those that had his attention dealt with the health risks of skateboarding. Like all good journalists, he loves to delve into an unexplored topic. \u00a0\u201cLook at this,\u201d he said, opening a folder of 1972 clippings of his pieces and reading the headlines: \u201c\u2018Crian\u00e7as espancadas\u2019 (Children beaten), \u2018A preocupa\u00e7\u00e3o com os velhos\u2019 (Concern over the elderly). I think I just picked up topics before they were fashionable.\u201d Abramczyk combines the enthusiasm of a novice with the maturity of a professional who knows he must always check every bit of information and recognize his own limits. \u201cI\u2019ve never written as if I were the one who knew things. Even today, I write about what other people know. I\u2019m not about to pontificate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abramczyk left O<\/em> Tempo<\/em> at the end of his senior year in high school in order to study for the medical school entrance exam. However, he dropped out during his second year at the Paulista School of Medicine, now the Federal University of S\u00e3o Paulo (Unifesp), and went back to journalism, this time at Folha<\/em>, where they were looking for a medical editor. The news director, who wanted a medical school graduate, turned up his nose when he found out Abramczyk was only a student, but he hired him anyway, on probation. Abramczyk seized the opportunity to prove he was a good reporter. A number of his pieces ran as front-page features. One of them was about cell cultures of Hansen\u2019s bacillus, which causes leprosy, now also called Hansen\u2019s disease. At that time, very little was known about the ailment, which was untreatable. \u201cReporters were more daring back then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abramczyk remembers that Jos\u00e9 Reis, physician and researcher at the Biology Institute of S\u00e3o Paulo, who had been writing for Folha<\/em> since 1947, at first showed no interest in the research into Hansen\u2019s bacillus that had prompted the story. Reis wrote for the paper for 55 years, until shortly before his death in 2002. He had honed his talent for employing direct language in the institute\u2019s journal O Biol\u00f3gico<\/em>, where institute researchers wrote on their fields of expertise for an audience composed of rural producers. Reis\u2019 specialty was poultry disease.<\/p>\n

Abramczyk first showed an interest in science as a teen, after reading a book by R\u00f4mulo Argentieri, nuclear physicist from S\u00e3o Paulo and prolific science communicator. Argentieri authored some 30 books on astronomy and worked as science editor for a number of S\u00e3o Paulo papers from 1939 to 1967. Another productive science writer was Eurico Santos, an agronomist from Rio de Janeiro who wrote for various newspapers, founded four agronomy journals, and published some 50 books on Brazilian plants and animals from 1910 to the late 1960s (see Pesquisa<\/em> FAPESP <\/em>Issue n\u00ba 229<\/a>). Experts covered more complex subjects but a colleague of Abramczyk\u2019s at Folha<\/em>, the journalist Jos\u00e9 Hamilton Ribeiro, began writing about science around this time and later made history with his stories in the magazine Realidade<\/em> and on the television program Globo Rural<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe enjoyed reporting the news in science,\u201d recalled Abramczyk. \u201cWhat might be missing today is a bit of joie de vivre<\/em>, as the French would say.\u201d There was certainly more freedom than today, as apparent in the March 9, 1948, headline of the paper A Noite <\/em>(now defunct, like O Tempo<\/em>), announcing physicist Cesar Lattes\u2019 identification of a new atomic particle: \u201cBrazilian scientist makes sensational discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Abramczyk

Duardo Knapp\/Folhapress<\/span>Abramczyk in 2013Duardo Knapp\/Folhapress<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

In the jungle<\/strong>
\nHired by Folha<\/em> in January 1960, Abramczyk oversaw the paper\u2019s section on medicine and biology. To keep abreast of the latest developments, he read medical journals and attended many conferences in Brazil and abroad. \u201cJust look how much space I had,\u201d he said, displaying a 1972 clipping of a report of his about an immunology conference in Lisbon that ran three full-length columns on one page.<\/p>\n

In the beginning, Abramczyk studied during the day, got to the paper late in the afternoon, and worked until the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes his two worlds intersected. It was at a meeting of the S\u00e3o Paulo Medical Association that he heard medical colleagues talking about research into a disease transmitted in the Amazon. He traveled there and reported on it in the February 9, 1961, issue of the paper: \u201cThe mosquitoes are caught by someone with bare arms and legs who waits for them to bite. Before the mosquitoes actually attack the body of their human bait, they are captured in individual bell jars.\u201d He also snapped a picture of a researcher in the dense forest, jar in hand, ready to catch the mosquito. The story won him the State Governor\u2019s Award in 1961.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood sources are essential,\u201d he said, pointing to three men in a yellowed photograph on one of his bookshelves. The year was 1962. On the left is Walter Leser, professor of preventive medicine at Unifesp and state secretary of health for two terms; in the middle, Abrah\u00e3o Rotberg, professor of dermatology, likewise at Unifesp; and on the right, Abramczyk. \u201cThey were my sources. I had dinner with them once a month for over 30 years. And each of us picked up our own tab.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was also committed to evaluating and strengthening science journalism. Covering the First Iberoamerican Congress on Scientific Periodicals, held in Caracas in 1974, he wrote this about the mission of the professional devoted to this field: \u201cTo inform without distorting and, when possible, to interpret. To take a firm stand on the side of science and culture.\u201d He later had his own hand in organizing the Fourth Iberoamerican Congress of Science Periodicals and the First Brazilian Congress on Science Journalism, held in S\u00e3o Paulo in 1982. His science journalism articles make up one section of his book M\u00e9dico e rep\u00f3rter <\/em>(Doctor and reporter), alongside others on public health, heart disease, personal health, and personality disorders.<\/p>\n

As president of the Brazilian Association of Science Journalism (ABJC), of which he was a founding member in 1978, Abramczyk tried to establish state chapters around Brazil. Not everything turned out as he hoped. Few chapters actually took shape and thrived. When he invited a colleague from Folha<\/em>, Claudio Abramo, to speak about science journalism at a meeting of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC), Abramo declared that there was no point to science journalism and that journalists should not specialize. One of Abramczyk\u2019s ideas was to encourage internships for journalism students at research laboratories so that scientists would lose their fear of talking to reporters while future reporters would stop thinking of scientists as inaccessible. In a way, this idea came to fruition through the courses sponsored by the Journalism Laboratory (LabJor) at the University of Campinas (Unicamp), where both groups, researchers and journalists, meet to discuss issues of shared concern.<\/p>\n

\"Diving

Reproduction Eduardo Cesar<\/span>Diving into the story: Jos\u00e9 Hamilton in the Paraguay River in the Pantanal Wetlands in 2006Reproduction Eduardo Cesar<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

REALIDADE<\/em> LESSONS<\/strong>
\nDuring its prime, from 1966 to 1969, the magazine Realidade<\/em> (Reality) won eight Esso awards\u2014the top prize in Brazilian journalism\u2014in recognition of reporting of such high quality that the stories are still a pleasure to read today. Of the eight Essos, four went to science pieces and, of those four, three were penned by Jos\u00e9 Hamilton Ribeiro, who said he first felt the joy of news reporting\u00a0 when he was around 9 or 10 and heard that a single-engine plane had crashed near his hometown of Santa Rosa do Viterbo, not far from Ribeir\u00e3o Preto. He and some other boys rushed to the scene, where he spoke with the pilot. He then reported on the incident back at home, where family and neighbors were waiting for him. Jos\u00e9 Hamilton, as he is known, turned 80 in August 2015; he said he lives \u201cat a very calm pace\u201d now. He no longer needs to keep up with the bustling production rhythm at the television program Globo Rural<\/em>, where he began 33 years ago\u2014with the illusion that he would be there just a few months before returning to another program on the Globo network, Globo Rep\u00f3rter<\/em>. He still travels and does news stories. In late July 2015, he was working on two: one about S\u00e3o Gon\u00e7alo, a Portuguese saint who is not very well known in Brazil, and one on a new breed of cattle being raised in the Pantanal Wetlands.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Hamilton started working as a journalist at O Tempo<\/em> in 1955; he moved to Folha de S.Paulo <\/em>the following year, where he was a general reporter, covering the daily news and sometimes science. \u201cThere was a bias back then that ordinary journalists were poorly trained and unable to understand and write about scientific topics,\u201d he said, looking back over his career from his home office in the S\u00e3o Paulo neighborhood of Aclima\u00e7\u00e3o. \u201cAt the same time, scientists didn\u2019t think reporters, who were usually young, would be able to understand a topic thoroughly enough to write about it for the man on the street.\u201d Consequently, there were specialists in agronomy, medicine, and engineering who wrote about their own fields for the papers. At Folha<\/em>, one of these was the Rio de Janeiro physician Jos\u00e9 Reis, who one day advised the cub reporter to read specialized journals to better prepare for his stories.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Hamilton garnered more experience in the area after he left Folha<\/em>. He got his law degree during a stint at the travel magazine Quatro Rodas <\/em>and then, in 1966, joined Realidade<\/em>. There he sharpened his eye and his ability to describe people, places, and events. In its earliest years\u2014before censorship was imposed under the military dictatorship that seized power in 1964\u2014the magazine published long, well-composed articles on surprising subject matters, like the tough life of divorc\u00e9es, who faced prejudice on all sides.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key to the history of Realidade<\/em>, in all areas, was the way we treated the text. At newspapers, the copyeditor would correct and sometimes rewrite the reporter\u2019s story,\u201d he said. \u201cAt Realidade<\/em>, the editor would work over the copy with the reporter; he\u2019d point out problems, say \u2018the beginning isn\u2019t good\u2019 or \u2018it ends too abruptly\u2019, and he\u2019d ask the reporter to do a better job developing the people and events so the story would flow better. Because, when the text is long, if I don\u2019t understand something, I won\u2019t read the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and other reporters then writing about science\u2014like Marcos de Castro, who won an Esso Award for a science piece in the early days of the magazine\u2014gradually perfected the method for handling complex subjects and scientists alike. \u201cWhen I had to do a story on medicine, engineering, or agronomy, I\u2019d have a go-to source\u2014preferably more than one\u2014and I\u2019d ask the main interviewee to read the first draft, the rough one, before it went to copydesk, to correct any mistakes of a technical nature. I didn\u2019t ask the source to evaluate the structure, whether or not the text read well or not\u2014but just to say \u2018this concept isn\u2019t right; let\u2019s explain it better\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

This practice, which became standard at Realidade<\/em>, grew out of a report on the first kidney transplant in Brazil, performed in S\u00e3o Paulo. Leery of sensationalism, the doctors had been avoiding the press but they agreed to meet with a team from the magazine. \u201cIt was negotiated, a pact of trust. A medical assistant was to read the raw material to prevent any mistake. Aside from that, the work went along as always, with the same concerns over editing the text.\u201d Published in December 1966, the article begins by describing the man set to receive the kidney: \u201cValter Mendes de Oliveira, 41, three children, and partner in a coffee roasting business in S\u00e3o Paulo, takes quite good care of his health. He was once in bad shape but now he watches out. First thing in the morning, at breakfast, he takes his daily pill. It\u2019s an expensive imported drug that only six people in Brazil use.\u201d Only later on does the account introduce the doctors.<\/p>\n

\"In

Reproduction Eduardo Cesar<\/span>In Portugal: Jos\u00e9 Hamilton travels the country to show how bark from the cork oak can be used, 2013Reproduction Eduardo Cesar<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Living it before writing about it<\/strong>
\nThe crafting of this report, which earned Jos\u00e9 Hamilton the first of his seven Essos, is recounted in one of the chapters of the book Jornalismo cient\u00edfico: teoria e pr\u00e1tica <\/em>(Science journalism: theory and practice), published in 2014 in co-authorship with Jose Marques de Melo, professor at both the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP) and the Methodist University of S\u00e3o Paulo. But his favorite story introduces Chico Her\u00e1clio, a true Northeastern \u201ccoronel.\u201d It came out in November 1966 and was reprinted in the recently released O jornalista mais premiado do Brasil<\/em> (The most award-winning journalist in Brazil), drawn from 10 years of research by journalist Arnon Gomes.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Hamilton recalls another valuable lesson from his days at Realidade<\/em>: hands-on experience. \u201cNo reporter would write about a topic unless he had basic practical knowledge of it. If you were going to write about a fishing settlement, you had to spend a few days there, living alongside the fishermen, eating the same food as they did. When you went to write, you were writing about what you knew. It wasn\u2019t just what you\u2019d heard about or what other people had observed.\u201d Jos\u00e9 Hamilton is aware that a news story today sometimes has to be based on only one scientific paper\u2014\u201cskimming the surface,\u201d as he called it. On the other hand, he mused, you can also \u201ctalk to the author, visit the laboratory, see who he interacts with and his working conditions. It depends on what you want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he was at Realidade<\/em>, Jos\u00e9 Hamilton taught journalism at three colleges: Casper L\u00edbero College (where he himself studied, though without getting a degree), Armando \u00c1lvares Penteado Foundation (FAAP), and Objetivo Colleges. One of his classes was held in an amphitheater, with a door on either side of the professor\u2019s desk and the students seated in the auditorium in front of him. Suddenly a woman burst through one of the doors, shouting, \u201cHelp! He wants to kill me!\u201d Then a man rushed in from the other side, holding what appeared to be a knife in his hand and yelling, \u201cI\u2019m going to kill you!\u201d They were in fact both amateur actors, who soon left the stage. The professor asked his students to write a description of what they had just witnessed. In the next class, everyone was surprised when he showed how the color of the man\u2019s and woman\u2019s clothing varied from one account to another and how the man sometimes wielded a dagger or even a small sword instead of the jackknife he actually had held. \u201cIf you, as future journalists, seated in a privileged position and enjoying a full view of the scene, had such distorted visions, imagine an ordinary person,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t trust too much in your own observations alone.\u201d Jos\u00e9 Hamilton is still concerned about the training of professionals in this field. He served as president of the Brazilian Association of Science Journalism (ABJC) from 1999 to 2001, during a period of steadily declining membership, and helped organize a conference in Florian\u00f3polis.<\/p>\n

After heading up newspapers in Ribeir\u00e3o Preto, S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 do Rio Preto, and Campinas for several years, Jos\u00e9 Hamilton returned to S\u00e3o Paulo to work for Globo Rep\u00f3rter <\/em>in the early 1980s. His first story was about prospectors in Serra Pelada, then the world\u2019s largest open-pit mining operation. When the team at Globo Rep\u00f3rter<\/em> underwent reshuffling, he took a temporary assignment with Globo Rural <\/em>and ended up never leaving. Skilled in listening and story telling, he portrayed the luminous termite hills of Goi\u00e1s, alongside USP chemist Etelvino Bechara; he accompanied researchers into the Pantanal; and he traveled Brazil, earning the respect of his interviewees and the public at large. So much so that he was paid a special honor: his name was included as part of the scientific name of a species of anthurium discovered in an Atlantic Forest reserve in the state of Esp\u00edrito Santo in 2009\u2014Anthurium hamiltonii nadruz<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Books<\/em>
\nABRAMCZYK, J. M\u00e9dico e rep\u00f3rter<\/strong>. S\u00e3o Paulo: Publifolha, 2012.
\nGOMES, A. O Rep\u00f3rter mais premiado do Brasil<\/strong>. Ara\u00e7atuba: Editora Eko, 2015.
\nMELO, J. M. and RIBEIRO, J. H. Journalism cient\u00edfico: teoria e pr\u00e1tica. <\/strong>S\u00e3o Paulo: Intercom, 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"J\u00falio Abramczyk and Jos\u00e9 Hamilton Ribeiro write about scientific topics","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[220,241],"coauthors":[5968],"class_list":["post-199141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humanities","tag-communication","tag-history"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199141"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=199141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}