Science journalism training in Asia Groups are working to improve press coverage

Ahe Chinese have a proverb that says that if you give a man a fish, he will have food for only one day. But if you teach the man how to fish, you will feed him for the rest of his life. Old fashioned as it may seem, this maxim may nevertheless prove to be the key to training science journalists and thereby increasing public understanding of science and technology in the developing world. Science, which has now become part and parcel of daily living, has still to be understood by millions of Asians if their countries are to modernize and develop. But the difficulties of interpreting science and technology for the public are great, particularly in countries with large rural components, as in Asia. Here, illiteracy rates are often high and there are few opportunities for direct contact with modern science and technology. Yet it is precisely in these areas where the need for the application of modern science and technology may be the greatest.