J-Topics

Dec 08, 2009 - Posted by Regan Ray

SMCC When it comes to science stories, overworked reporters often resort to rounding up quotes from duelling experts, writes Peter Calamai. Enter the recently launched Science Media Centre of Canada, which will arm journalists with information and help them cover stories with science content.

Is the media going overboard with H1N1 coverage? The National hosts a panel

Nov 09, 2009 - Posted by Regan Ray

Wendy Mesley recently hosted a panel discussion on The National about how the media handled coverage of H1N1. Watch the full video or read brief excerpts here.

Pregnant women, pandemics and politics

Oct 29, 2009 - Posted by Maija Saari

Susan Delacourt from the Toronto Star covers a bizarre bout of heckling and laughter Tuesday in the House of Commons as Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett (a physician and former public health minister) attempted to raise a question about H1N1 vaccine.

What Delacourt describes as mocking derision from the Tory benches prevented Bennett from completing a question regarding risk of exposure to adjuvants within the vaccine for pregnant women.

"This isn't funny," shouts a grimacing Bennett in a video uploaded by the Liberals on You Tube. (A longer version with the full question was uploaded here)

The incident can be found spinning through the blogs at Impolitical, Dr. Dawg and Broadsides (Antonia Zerbisias, Warren Kinsella, and online news fora at CBC, Macleans and the Globe and Mail.

Nieman guide to covering pandemic flu launched

Oct 28, 2009 - Posted by Regan Ray

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard has launched a "comprehensive online guide to covering pandemic flu." The new website, Covering Pandemic Flu, is aimed specifically at journalists. The foundation is calling the new resource a...

UBC Conference on health and environment

Oct 20, 2009 - Posted by Maija Saari

Registration closes Oct. 23 for a Nov. 6 science journalism conference in Vancouver.

Health and Environment Reporting in a Connected World is a day-long event at the University of British Columbia. It features panels on sustainability, pandemics and the future of science journalism.

David Secko, conference presenter and journalism professor at Concordia University in Montreal, will report highlights from the conference for J-source.

Washing hands of H1N1: tracking the institutional response

Sep 15, 2009 - Posted by Maija Saari

As students flood hallways once again, the looming spectre of an influenza H1N1 outbreak is making institutions think twice about a stalwart measure of student accountability this semester - the doctor's note. Recommendations for pandemic planning for universities and colleges were issued Sept. 9 by...

Some day, you'll cover a health crisis

Jun 09, 2009 - Posted by Regan Ray

The latest health scare in Canada won’t be the last, writes former Toronto Star health reporter Karen Palmer. With more than 2,400 cases of the H1N1 flu virus confirmed in Canada, the story affects all beats and requires teamwork from editors and reporters.

What do you mean by "pandemic"?

Jun 09, 2009 - Posted by Maija Saari

As N1H1 influenza continues to spread, Lawrence Altman provides a good backgrounder in The New York Times about what "pandemic" means. The article illustrates the challenge of using medical terminology that presumes the receiver knows what the speaker intends.

Internet "most useful" source for swine flu info

May 07, 2009 - Posted by Alan Bass

People followed the swine flu story closely last week. Although most "learned something" about the flu from local TV news and, to a lesser extent, cable news, the Internet came out on top when people were asked which medium was "most useful," according to a Pew research survey.

Of lipstick on pigs

May 04, 2009 - Posted by Patricia Elliott

Should journalists participate in the rebranding of swine flu? "It is not a 'swine' flu, and people need to stop calling it that," Dave Warner of the National Pork Producers Council told CNN. "They're ruining people's lives." Actually, under the rules of flu nomenclature, viruses are named after where they are first found, according to this article in Food Manufacturing. That would make it Mexican flu. Right? No. Talk about ruining people's lives.

When Stephen Harper...