Previously worked as a science journalist for The Scientist magazine, Vancouver’s Tyee, the Science Creative Quarterly, Canadian Medical Association Journal and the U.S. Public Library of Science (PLoS). Dr. Secko now studies the future of science journalism. He is the leader of the Concordia Science Journalism Project and our experiential science journalism summer school Projected Futures.
Education
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Postdoctoral Fellow, W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics, University of British Columbia
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PhD, Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia
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MJ (Science Journalism), University of British Columbia
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BSc (Hons.), Life Science, Queen’s University
Areas of research interest
I am currently the MA Program Director in the Department of Journalism with a diverse research team working on digital innovation related to how science is communicated with society through journalism.
Before turning to journalism, I was trained as a molecular biologist at the University of British Columbia. This research focused on the soil amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum and efforts to understand how it was capable of living a solitary life until starved, where upon it signaled to its kin to organize into a multicellular organism and crawl together to a new source of food. I followed this up with adventures as a science journalist.
At Concordia University, my team works to give journalists and students new tools to communicate science. We are particularly interested in experimental science journalism and innovating with new forms of scientific storytelling. This research seeks to link across journalism, science and ethical issues to clarify and experiment with the roles of publics, experts and journalists in the democratic governance of biotechnology. Examples of our work include examining educational visions for the future of science journalism, the definition and testing of four models of science journalism, and a metasynthesis of the experiences of science journalists. We also study the moderation and design of deliberative engagement events.
This research has won a University Research Award and a Dean’s Award for Excellence. It is put into practice through our summer school, Projected Futures.
Courses taught
JOUR 645 Projected Futures: Experimental Science Journalism Studies
JOUR 500 Critical Approaches to Journalism
JOUR 402 Specialist Reporting: Science
JOUR 205 Principles of Journalistic Thought
