It has now been almost a decade since the UK Science Media Centre (SMC) was created, after a UK House of Lords committee concluded that scientists in the country were not engaging effectively with the media. Its remit: to ensure scientists take part in media stories about science, rather than complaining about inaccurate or sensationalist coverage. Since then, the UK centre, directed by communications expert Fiona Fox, has been deemed a success by scientists and journalists alike, and sister SMCs have been set up in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Japan, with Denmark expected to launch in 2011. From its humble beginnings, the UK SMC has received thousands of queries from science and health journalists eager to get an expert's opinion on a breaking story. Essentially a living, breathing newsroom, the centre has built up a huge database of scientists across the UK willing to interact with journalists. The team has also invested substantial resources in training scientists to be more media friendly.
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