J-Topics

The New York Times looks at the conundrum of whether coverage exacerbates a crisis. An excerpt:

Without the news media the public would be dangerously unaware of the swine flu outbreak, but perhaps without saturation coverage on cable news networks and the velocity of information on the Internet, the public would not be so hysterical, medical professionals said.

“It’s a fine line between educating people and frightening them,” ...

J-Source has extensive resources and information about "swine" flu coverage here.

As swine flu cases spread across Canada, J-Source's Larry Cornies asked journalists and health experts for their assessment of the coverage given this story to date. The following are excerpts from telephone interviews with André Picard, Tom Blackwell and David McKie.

The swine flu outbreak is the first real test both of the media and of many of the pandemic plans put into place by hospitals, public health agencies and local, provincial and federal levels of government since the SARS epidemic played out in Toronto in 2003. From my vantage point as an interested scientist and science journalist, most seem to have been doing a much better job of communication and a more balanced job of reporting on the potential risks this time around.

Maureen Taylor, who covered SARS and avian flu for CBC-TV, offers ten Do's and Don'ts for those on the new flu beat. Also on our growing Covering Health Crises page are tips from Andre Picard, Tom Blackwell and David McKie, key health data sources, a post-SARS report card, a risk-guidance checklist from the BBC, medical backgrounders and assessments of the recent days' coverage on various news platforms and social media.