The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships Blog

Shorter is better. Seven seconds on the Internet is an eternity. Human voices can add an emotional component to a story in a way that text never does.

From top-10 lists to video clips to narrated slideshows, journalists are adding multimedia components to their print and broadcast stories to add depth to their storytelling, get more “bank for the buck” out in the field and create new audiences and distribution channels for their content.

In "LaVonna's World," people in South Los Angeles are able to buy healthy, fresh food at reasonable prices in grocery stores near their homes. They're able to see a specialist when they need to and get the health insurance they need. They don't suffer disproportionately from diseases like diabetes and asthma.

Dan Pacheco, founder of Printcasting, says that the attendees of "Community Health and the Blogosphere "haven't just drunk the social media Kool-Aid, they are the Kool-Aid." And that's okay, because it's a much older phenomenon than you might expect.

Against the backdrop of today's televised health care summit in Washington, D.C., a Los Angeles gathering is discussing health in their communities from a decidedly different angle.

"When people think of health, they frequently think of medicine," said Michelle Levander, director of The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, which convened the event. "But we encourage you think of health  from a different standpoint, from the perspective of broader community well being."