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HEALTH CD
Award Winner
The Media as Mass Educator
Meeting the Need
Educating Journalists
Cost-Effective Training
How Health Journalism Works
Political and Social Issues
Award Winner
 This
CD-ROM prototype has received two CINDY awards- coveted
Cinema in Industry distinctions in international and
national competitions. The CINDY award is presented
by the International Association of Audio Visual Communicators,
a nonprofit organization representing theatrical, broadcast,
non-broadcast and interactive media professionals throughout
the world.
The Media as Mass Educator
Throughout the world, people look to the
media for information on what can be done to maintain,
improve, and reclaim healthy lifestyles. Research shows
that audiences turn primarily to the media for health
information. The public consistently mentions health
as one of the three topics in which they are most interested.
Meeting the Need
Though the public turns to the media for
information on health and other social topics, tools
do not presently exist to teach journalists to report
on these complex issues. Teaching tools, academic courses,
or classroom instruction are largely unavailable for
journalists, students of journalism and journalism educators.
The CD ROM "Health Journalism" helps to fill
this gap in training.
Educating Journalists
Health Journalism is designed to educate
journalists and journalism students to meet the health
needs of their audiences around the world. Journalists
must be trained specifically on how to report on health
and medical issues. This is essential for information
to reach the public in an effective, timely and cost-effective
way. Poorly written stories, or inaccurate stories,
can confuse and can hurt more than help. "Health
Journalism" seeks to ensure that the public receives
the quality information that it needs.
Journalists need to know where to find the most accurate,
credible, up-to-the minute information about health
issues. They need to understand the constantly changing
demographics of epidemics, such as HIV/AIDS, and how
to report on natural disasters like those caused by
El Niño. Journalists must be able to discern
fact from fiction. They must be equipped to do investigative
reporting when it is needed. And they must know how
to write compelling stories that grab the attention
of mass audiences.
Cost-Effective Training
Health Journalism makes it possible to
train journalists on a large scale that is cost-effective.
It can be used in a classroom setting or by individuals
at home, or in the workplace.
The program is adaptable. Individual journalists may
work on their own to develop and strengthen skills in
health reporting. They will find that this program is
user-friendly and comprehensive both in journalistic
skills and specific background materials on health issues.
The CD-ROM is being given out free of charge. Updating
the information in the CD-ROM is inexpensive, and copies
may be reproduced in large numbers at relatively small
cost. Subsequent investments for expansion and future
development of the CD-ROM and its programs allow for
reaching large audiences at low per capita costs.
The CD-ROM "Health Journalism"
will be of great assistance throughout Latin America
and the Caribbean to support journalists and media houses
to incorporate information on health, which will in
turn increase media audiences.
--The Pan American Health Organization
It's a great teaching tool to help
journalists sharpen their skills as medical reporters,
and I plan to use it in our training programs.
--Rob Taylor, Director
Science and Environmental Programs
International Center for Journalists
How Health Journalism Works
Journalists enter the offices of the World
News Service, a virtual media organization, and follow
step-by-step instructions to craft health-related news
and feature stories. The presentation of technical information
on a CD-ROM format combines text, graphics, audio, video,
and animation in self-paced teaching.
After an orientation, the program takes journalists
to the Assignment Editor to choose an assignment. Users
may access and master background and reference materials
in the Briefing Room before traveling to the virtual
site to write and submit the assigned story. "On
Site" in the CD-ROM, journalists can find news
sources such as press releases, interviews, and speeches.
These materials are the equivalent of what journalists
on the job gather and have in hand if actually doing
reporting on the scene.
Health Journalism has everything, including a "Journalistic
Notebook," background reference materials, and
sources needed to write an original story. Journalists
may write the story and print it from this program.
Hyperlinks to resources on the Internet are also available.
Political and Social Issues
 Journalists
can more aggressively cover issues such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic
and natural disasters. They can create an environment in which
culturally and politically sensitive issues are treated with
more openness and in greater depth. In many parts of the world,
journalists can more effectively focus the public's attention
on health issues.
They have the ability to expand the impact
of their reporting beyond the traditional political
sphere by delving into the public health arena. Reporting
can cover health, political, social and economic underpinnings
and deadly consequences of ignorance or inaction. This
attention, brought to bear by journalists, will create
an atmosphere of public expectation around the performance
of public officials and institutions in dealing with
various aspects of the pandemic and its consequences.
UNAIDS intends to use "Health
Journalism" as a basis to develop further interactive
training programs and curricula for journalists in African
countries. It will help to strengthen several current
efforts by the United Nations, not-for-profit organizations
and the private sector in educating the media better
on HIV/AIDS and other development projects.
-- Bumni Mackinwa, UNAIDS Official
Partnerships are welcomed. Contact us at:
International Broadcasting Bureau
Office of Development
330 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20237
USA
Tel. 202-619-DEV1 (or 3381)
E-mail: healthcd@ibb.gov
www.ibb.gov/healthCD
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