08/02/2023

Journalists celebrate female presence in webinar.

The webinar to discuss the behind-the-scenes and challenges of the winning reports of the 5th IMPA Journalism Award celebrated female journalistic talent on the morning of this Wednesday (8). The four participants in the event, winners of first to third place in the “Scientific Dissemination” category, are women. Nádia Pontes, from Deutsche Welle, Natália Belizário Silva and Jéssica Maes, from the Habitat Podcast of Folha de S.Paulo and Christina Queiroz, from Revista Pesquisa Fapesp shared with the public the process of reporting the winning articles.

The virtual meeting was broadcast on IMPA's YouTube channel , where it remains available, and was moderated by the institute's Press and Content Coordinator, Raphael Gomide.

“I am surrounded by very talented journalists who have done excellent work for this edition of the award. The goal of the IMPA Award is precisely to recognize and promote scientific journalism, the importance of the work you do daily, showing what is happening in Brazil and in Brazilian science, which is very relevant for the country,” Gomide highlighted as he began the webinar.

First place winner in Science Communication with the series " The Scientists of the Amazon," which addresses the work of women researchers dedicated to studying the Amazon rainforest, Nádia Pontes said that the research process leading up to the publication of the series took about eight months. The trip to the Amazon took place in the company of her 10-month-old daughter – a work "partner" who even called her mother during the webinar.

“I brought a ten-month-old baby to work with me, and many times I had to stop the process to breastfeed. This opened doors for the scientists to share similar situations, difficult choices they had to make to stay in their careers: this inspired me a lot to continue. Another thing that struck me was the transformation that these women saw happening in the Amazon.”

The journalist, who has worked for DW for 13 years, also said that it was during her stay in Germany that the opportunity arose to travel to the Amazon to film the documentary.

Second place

Natália Belizario and Jéssica Maes, who won second place in the IMPA Journalism Prize, represented the Habitat podcast team from Folha de São Paulo at the webinar. They submitted the project to a Serrapilheira institute grant program exclusively for podcasts, which allowed the publication of the seven episodes. The work discusses the human impact on the loss of biodiversity on the planet and the possibility of a mass extinction, and took a year to complete.

“We are betting on this characteristic of podcasts, of being very intimate, of speaking directly into the listener's ear to transport them to the heart of the Amazon, the Cerrado, to tell the story of dinosaurs in order to sensitize people – a valuable tool in journalism,” said Jéssica Maes.

According to the journalists, who made five trips through the country's biomes, the podcast production involved 15 professionals and was more difficult than they imagined because it began in 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Natália Belizario celebrated the presence of female journalists as winners in the Science Communication category. "I'm very happy that we are women winners, and how important this is for other journalists to venture into this topic," she stated.

Third place

Also representing a team, Christina Queiroz recounted the behind-the-scenes story of the series "Other Faces of Independence ," from Revista Pesquisa Fapesp. The reports showed how science was treated as a state policy during the Empire, with economic and diplomatic benefits for Brazil, including the maintenance of its territory.

Christina highlighted that the goal of the work was to describe the political thinking of society at the time of Brazil's independence. To help with this, the journalists rethought the magazine's iconography. "The solution for the images was to invite an artist, Gustavo Piqueira, who works with historical iconography, and to think about how to offer new perspectives on this history that is now in the past."

Through in-depth research, one of the articles in the series even discussed the role of indigenous people in orchestrating independence. "They understood Portuguese political thought and used it to their own advantage."

Next meeting Friday

On Friday (10), at 11 am, IMPA's YouTube channel will broadcast live the second webinar of the IMPA Award, with the winners of the “Mathematics” category. Participating are journalists Bruno Romani (Estadão); Stefhanie Piovezan, (Jornal da USP) and Lucas Duarte Matos from TV Liberal (TV Globo affiliate in Pará).