The news gathering behaviors of 24 mass media science writers were examined at individual (occupational) and organizational levels through personal interviews, observation at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and content analysis of the stories produced. Data indicated that organizational constraints were the major factors determining news selection strategies, but that individual-level variables come into play at both the information gathering and the writing stages. Greater numbers of organizational constraints seemed to reduce the roles that individual-level variables have in the news making process for a given reporter. Additionally, organizational variables seemed to promote competitive behavior, while individual-level variables encouraged cooperative behavior among the science writers in the study. (Author/RL)