California Health Journalism Fellowships
Application Deadline: Sep 02, 2010
How to Apply »
Who Can Apply:
The Fellowships are open to professional journalists from print, broadcast or online media in California, including freelancers, who have a passion for health news. We encourage participation from journalists working for the general circulation publications, specialty health care and ethnic media, as well as small and major market broadcast outlets.
Seminar Schedule:
October 21 - October 24, 2010 & January 20 - January 23, 2011
Taught by prize-winning journalists, community health leaders, policy analysts and health care experts, this Fellowship program features two intensive sessions, held three months apart. Fellows participate in field trips, workshops and seminars highlighting some of the top health challenges facing California. Both sessions begin with a keynote dinner on Thursday evening and end midday on the following Sunday.
The application period for the 2010 California Health Journalism Fellowship is open. The deadline for applying is September 2, 2010. Click here for detailed application instructions and an online application.
Program Description:
In Session 1, Fellows hone their craft, gain new perspectives on health issues and come away with great sources and strategies to deal with complex health data and research reports. Presentations on how to create multimedia reports also broaden Fellows' reporting skills, helping them to reach a wider digital audience. Session 2 provides an in-depth exposure to the latest thinking about a compelling health issue. For our 2010 program, the topic will be "Healthy Communities" — how neighborhood life, work conditions, social inequities, race and education influence health. - New fellows are expected to attend Session 1 and Session 2.
- Returning alumni fellows are only required to attend Session 2 (Session 1 is optional).
- Assigning editors and producers for fellows are strongly encouraged to attend our special Fellowship project discussion during Session 2, at our expense.
During the Fellowship sessions, Fellows get plenty of time to discuss with experts, and with each other, strategies for covering health news with authority and sophistication. Between the two sessions and for three months after the second session, Fellows are given the opportunity to confer by phone and e-mail with veteran journalists who guide them through work on major Fellowship projects.
Program Highlights:
Part 1 of our 2009/2010 California Health Journalism Fellowship featured: - A behind-the-scenes look by 60 Minutes Producer Henry Schuster of the making of his Peabody award-winning documentary Lifeline, which starkly portrays third world conditions for uninsured Americans by following Remote Area Medical, an international medical relief agency that now operates in the U.S.
- A field trip to one of California’s greatest environmental battlegrounds, the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, where local activists fought and won significant reductions in airborne pollution caused by goods transport industries including shipping, railroads and trucking
- An exploration of the medical, legal and emotional end-of-life issues all families face when caring for a dying loved one, with best-selling author and New York Times columnist Jane Brody, author of “Jane Brody’s Guide to the Great Beyond”
- An insider’s expose of the U.S. insurance industry’s effort to derail health reform, with Wendell Potter, a former senior health insurance industry executive who recently testified at a U.S. Senate committee hearing
- A nuanced exploration of racial and ethic disparities in health, with Brian Smedley, vice president and director of the Health Policy Institute of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C.
- A primer on reporting on medical studies authoritatively, with Erika Franklin Fowler, a Wesleyan University professor and former Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of Michigan, whose research tracks the errors medical journalists make through misunderstandings of the numbers
- An interactive workshop on how to avoid the unhealthy influence of spin masters in the field of health reporting, with Dr. Robert Davis, author of “The Healthy Skeptic: Cutting Through the Hype about Your Health”
- A hands-on workshop on strategies for rich multimedia and multi-platform health storytelling with Craig Rosa, interactive web producer for the noted science, environment and nature program QUEST at KQED
Part II of our previous California Health Journalism Fellowships Program featured: - A keynote address by Ethan Watters, whose book, ‘‘Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche,’’ documents the “Americanization” of the world’s understanding of mental health and illness
- A conversation with USC Professor Lavonna Lewis, Ph.D., and Valerie Ruelas, who heads a Children's Hospital/USC Community Diabetes Initiative, on innovative approaches to the obesity-diabetes epidemic in South Central Los Angeles, including Watts
- An evening visit to the emergency room of the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, one of the nation’s busiest, led by Dr. Ed Newton, an outspoken critic of the shortcomings of the U.S.’s frayed safey net
- An exploration of how mental health issues play out in distinct immigrant communities, with a visit to the Asian Pacific Family Center. Center Director Terry Gock and Associate Director Glenn Masuda led a discussion outlining the unique challenges they face working within Asian immigrant communities of Los Angeles.
- Jody Ranck, a former director of global health at Palo Alto's Institute of the Future, shared his "Secrets of an Informavore," discussing how he uses social media tools to share information, glean new ideas and innovate
|
Although I have been covering health care for nearly a decade, the program was a great source of new ideas and approaches, with tons of great news sources and data to help implement them.
--
Josh Goldstein, Staff Writer, Health and Science Reporter
Philadelphia Inquirer
|
