Goddard Space Flight Center
June 7 – August 13, 2021
Goals of your project/s:
The primary goal of the project was to strengthen NASA’s relationships with the scientific community and the public by writing features on NASA missions, scientists, and interns. Other secondary goals included: engaging more diverse audiences, enhancing science communication skills, maintaining NASA’s reputability and credibility, and strategically communicate climate change information to skeptical audiences.
Describe what you did during the internship:
During my internship, I wrote a total of six feature stories for nasa.gov. Topics for these features included: flood mapping using NASA satellite imagery, the NASA intern experience, sending autonomous vessels to the Arctic to validate satellite measurements, the SeaHawk-1 satellite and its HawkEye instrument that studies ocean color, creating arts and crafts based on Landsat imagery, and the connection between the livestock industry and atmospheric methane. In addition to these written projects, I also contributed to NASA social media. On National Intern Day, I took over @nasaearth’s Instagram story to talk about the experience of being a NASA communications intern. In complement to a written announcement feature, I wrote a Tumblr post to promote the #LandsatCraft social media campaign that invited audiences to create their own Landsat-inspired arts and crafts.
Did you achieve your goals? What were the results and conclusions?
I achieved my goals in full. As of this week, three of my six written features have been published. The rest are scheduled to be published in the next month. NASA Inspires You to Create Landsat-Inspired Arts and Crafts received 10,000 unique pageviews, likely due to the NASA-wide social media promotion. Christian Taubenberger – Intern to Published Scientist in Under a Year received 103 unique pageviews, likely because the story was specific to Goddard Space Flight Center and was not heavily promoted on social media. The National Intern Day Instagram story takeover on @nasaearth was particularly successful; at its peak, we received 39,000 views on each story, hundreds of questions were asked, and 165 people visited nasa.force.com (the NASA intern application portal) in response to a single story with information on how to apply to be a NASA intern.
Through these stories and social media campaigns, I maintained NASA’s reputability and credibility by conducting in-depth research on each topic and putting my stories through rigorous fact-checking and review. I strengthened NASA’s relationships with: scientists by promoting their research and projects, interns by using the Q&A story format to amplify their voice, and the broader public by committing to ethical journalism and scientific accuracy. I engaged non-science audiences with the #LandsatCraft campaign, enhanced my own scientific communication skills, and explained climate change to skeptical Midwestern audiences by using livestock and agriculture as an example that they can see firsthand.
Describe positive lessons learned from this experience:
Overall, my experience was largely positive. I learned how to strategically communicate to audience about complex scientific concepts, translating jargon and keeping in mind the ‘big picture.’ I also learned how to communicate with scientists more effectively, especially when attempting to understand these complex science concepts; doing comprehensive background research prior to interviewing and phrasing questions in specific ways are most important when pulling quotes from scientists that will make sense to the larger public. Additionally, I learned how to be a journalist in a virtual world. Although this lesson was learned as I interned in my home rather than in the newsroom due to the pandemic, I am now more comfortable asking questions, reaching out for help/support, and taking initiative to run social media campaigns or take the lead on stories.
Describe negative lessons learned from this experience:
I learned that science communications for a scientific organization can be a long and tedious process. Because NASA is committed to scientific accuracy, the research, fact-checking, and review processes can take weeks or more in total. As a journalist, I am used to deadlines that can be anywhere from a week to a few hours, and so it took me a while to adjust to NASA’s process. Additionally, I learned that I still have a lot to learn and a lot to improve on. While my internship with NASA taught me so much about science writing and social media, my video and audio production skills must be improved to be the excellent multimedia journalist that I want to be.