Cristine Russell

Cristine Russell is an award-winning freelance journalist who has written about science and medicine for more than three decades. She was formerly a national science reporter for the Washington Post and, earlier, the Washington Star. She is vice-president of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, a past president of the National Association of Science Writers, and a contributor to A Field Guide for Science Writers. Russell serves on the USC Annenberg School for Communication board and on the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. She is an honorary member of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, and has a biology degree from Mills College. Her research at the Shorenstein Center focused on the future of science writing and how the news media covers controversial scientific issues for the general public.

From Doomsday to Hope: Covering Solutions to the Climate and Energy Crisis

February 1, 2022

This event is open to the public and hosted on Zoom. For those who cannot attend live, the seminar will be recorded and available to watch on this page. Registration is required, and will remain open until the event begins.

Jameel Jaffer: Government Secrecy in the Age of Information Overload

November 6, 2017

Jameel Jaffer, Executive Director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and former Deputy Legal Director for the ACLU, delivered the tenth annual Salant Lecture on Freedom of the Press at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on October 17, 2017, entitled “Government Secrecy in the Age of Information Overload.” Watch the video

Cristine Russell: At the Paris climate talks, media coverage takes a turn

December 1, 2015

December 1, 2015 — Cristine Russell, former Shorenstein Center fellow and current advisory board member, journalist, and senior fellow at the HKS Belfer Center, writes about the range of coverage coming out of the United Nations Climate Summit – from the pessimistic, to live blogs, to a comic book format. Read more in Columbia Journalism Review.

Unruly Democracy: Science Blogs and the Public Sphere

April 30, 2010

April 30, 2010 – Panel discussion with Sheila Jasanoff, HKS STS Program; Henry Donahue, Discover; Gideon Gil, The Boston Globe; Joy Moore, Seed; Francesca Grifo, Union of Concerned Scientists; Chris Mooney, MIT and Discover; Jessica Palmer, Bioephemera; Amanda Gefter, New Scientist; Kimberley Isbell, Citizens Media Law Project; “Dr. Isis,” science blogs; Thomas Levenson, MIT; Sam Bayard, Citizen Media

Panel looks at the possibility of trying to ‘fix’ the earth’s climate

March 31, 2010

March 31, 2010 — The third and final event in the Climate Change and the Media Seminar Series, “Techno-Optimism or Pessimism: ‘Fixing’ the Planet’s Climate Problems,” lived up to the dramatic promise of its title. There was no lack of stark images, dramatic turns of phrase, and daring ideas so far out there that, as

Panel: Climate coverage difficult, but journalists shouldn’t opt out

March 4, 2010

March 4, 2010 — Not so long ago it appeared that a U.S. cap-and-trade bill was well on its way to becoming reality. But then came the “climategate” emails and increased political opposition, particularly in the Senate, to taking action. While public worries over the impacts of climate change had once been climbing, they’ve since

Revkin: Climate change information must come from outside journalism

February 4, 2010

February 4, 2010 — The first of three Shorenstein Center/Belfer Center seminars on news coverage of climate change, “The Public Divide over Climate Change: Scientists, Skeptics and the Media,” was itself a lively debate. The panel featured Andrew C. Revkin of the New York Times‘ Dot Earth blog, Matthew Nisbet of American University, and Tom

Center presents ‘Future of Science Journalism’ forum at MIT Museum

April 28, 2009

April 28, 2009 — The Shorenstein Center, together with the Knight Science Fellowship program and MIT, presented “The Future of Science Journalism,” a forum at the third-annual Cambridge Science Festival, held at the MIT Museum. Introductory remarks were given by Dr. Susan Hockfield, president of MIT. Jill Abramson, managing editor of The New York Times,

Covering Controversial Science: Improving Reporting on Science and Public Policy

January 1, 2006

A paper by Cristine Russell, spring 2006 fellow, surveys the state of science journalism, and finds that as the pace of new developments in science and technology quickens, journalists are increasingly confronted with covering complicated technical information as well as the potential social, legal, religious, and political consequences of scientific research. More coverage of the

Cristine Russell

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