Below are details of some opportunities and developments in media and health:
• A US course that aims to help journalists and editors do a better job of reporting on medical research (I have been assured that Australian journalists are welcome to apply).
• A call for applications for the 2012 Dart Center Ochberg Fellowships (Declaration: undertaking this fellowship provided a welcome boost for my own professional development).
• The launch of a new rural health TV channel.
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Invitation to apply to a National Institutes of Health course: The Challenge of Reporting on Medical Research
The Office of Disease Prevention at the NIH presents its annual training opportunity to help develop the ability of journalists and editors to evaluate and report on medical research.
The course stresses an evidence-based approach and re-examines common beliefs about medicine. Participants learn how to interpret and evaluate research findings, how to select stories that hold meaning for the public, and how to place a science story in its appropriate context.
Applications close June 1.
The curriculum builds on the best of prior years’ offerings to create an intensive learning experience with hands-on application. Faculty includes experts from the fields of medical research and health journalism.
The 2012 Medicine in the Media course agenda is currently in development and will be announced in the coming months. As an indicator of the course’s scope, topics from the 2011 agenda included:
- Numbers in Research
- Basic Research Designs
- Criteria for Covering Research Stories
- When the News May Not Be Fit To Print
- Guidance on Guidelines: Using Clinical Recommendations in Reporting.
Spaces for the course are limited and competitively awarded. Priority is given to health journalists working in the mass media, including online media. Attendees should be eager to develop skills and knowledge necessary for good medical science reporting, but need not have extensive experience or background in medical journalism.
Resources for participants, including access to a LinkedIn community of Medicine in the Media alumni, will be available upon completion of the course.
Accommodation is provided, but participants are responsible for all travel costs.
Here’s what three previous participants had to say about their Medicine in the Media experience:
“Attending [the] Medicine in the Media course was the best thing I have done for my career.”
– Sarah Baldauf, 2008, U.S. News & World Report
“It’s clear that this program has been given and fine-tuned over time. The presentations are not only straightforward, but often entertaining….The faculty could not be more responsive or helpful….This is one of the best news conferences I’ve ever attended and, in many ways, it can hardly be improved upon.”
– Joe Fahy, 2008, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“I’m amazed at the ability of the course-givers to take very complex information and make it not only clear but interesting, so that you want to learn more about it and you want to take it back with you and put it to use. I think one of the major benefits of this course is what I’m going to be able to talk to my colleagues about and make them aware of. And I’ve got cards from 15 or 20 people I’ll be contacting in the future for leads to stories and to use as sources.”
– Richard Kipling, 2011, Center for Health Reporting at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California
Read additional testimonials.
For more information and to apply, visit here or contact medmediaATod.nih.gov
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An opportunity for journalists who cover violence, conflict and trauma
The Dart Center invites applications for the 2012 Dart Center Ochberg Fellowships – a unique seminar program for journalists worldwide who want to deepen their knowledge of emotional trauma and psychological injury, and improve coverage of violence, conflict and tragedy.
Reporting responsibly and credibly on street crime and family violence, natural disasters and accidents, war and genocide is a great challenge. Since 1999 the Dart Center has offered the annual Ochberg Fellowships to outstanding midcareer journalists in all media interesting in exploring such critical issues.
The 2012 Ochberg Fellowship Program will be truly global, welcoming applications from Africa, the Mideast, and Asia along with North America, Australia and the Pacific, Latin America and Europe.
This year’s Ochberg Fellowship Program will begin Monday, October 22 and conclude Friday, October 26, 2012. Fellows attend an intensive weeklong program of seminars and discussions held at Columbia University in New York City.
The application deadline is July 20, 2012.
The Fellowship was established in 1999 by the Dart Center in partnership with the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. The fellowship is named in honor of psychiatrist Frank Ochberg, a pioneer in trauma study.
The Ochberg Fellowship covers all travel, accommodation and other expenses directly related to program participation. The program does not cover costs related to visas, health insurance or ground transportation in fellows’ home cities.
Dart Center Ochberg Fellowships are open to outstanding mid-career journalists working across all media.
Past Fellows have ranged from small-town and regional general-assignment and crime reporters to war photographers and foreign correspondents for international news organizations. Applicants’ work must demonstrate journalistic excellence and a strong track record of covering violence and its impact on individuals, families or communities.
Fellowships are open to print, broadcast and online reporters, photographers, editors and producers with no fewer than five years’ full-time journalism experience. Approximately half of the Fellowship participants are based in North America, with the balance drawn from Central and South America, Europe, the Asia Pacific region, Africa and the Mideast.
All fellowship seminars are conducted in English. Fellows must be fluent in spoken English to participate in the program. More information is here.
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Introducing the Rural Health Channel
Today is the scheduled kickoff date for the Rural Health Channel: a dedicated free-to-air health channel that will begin broadcasting to rural and remote Australians on VAST (Viewer Access Satellite Television).
The Rural Health Channel (RHC 600), which is owned and managed by the Rural Health Education Foundation, will broadcast professionally accredited programs as well as other health education information and programs.
The channel will be on-air, 24 hours per week; with sessions on weekday afternoons (1-3.30pm) and weekday evenings (7.30-9.30pm) and a late afternoon session on Sundays (4.30-6pm).
The first week’s schedule of programs during the channel’s themed Aged Care Week, in-line with National Palliative Care Week, is listed on the Rural Health Channel TV Guide webpage.
The first live panel discussion will be a program on Parkinson’s on May 22. It will be a simultaneous online webcast and broadcast on NITV. Visit the Parkinson’s: The Latest Approaches webpage for more information.
