[ecrea] Health Journalism Conference Will be a Game Changer

Health Journalism Conference Will be a Game Changer

First Do No Harm, an international conference on health journalism and PR to be held at Coventry next month (14-16 May), will make a decisive difference into how health reporting and health PR are seen and supported in future. And interest in this unique and ground-breaking conference is growing.

The conference, which is supported both by the National Union of Journalists and the Medical Journalists’ Association in the UK, is drawing speakers and delegates from across Europe and further.

Speakers are from the UK, Europe, USA, Canada and India. Those from the UK include Roy Lilley, leading health blogger; Dr John Lister, veteran health campaigner, researcher, and co-organiser of the conference; and Shaun Lintern, the health reporter who broke the story of Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trusts – the scandal which triggered the Francis Inquiry into the NHS, revealing a shocking under-current of bullying, blame and denial.

The conference will look at why health journalism matters, the professional realities of health reporting and PR, the ethics of health journalism and PR, editorial power and responsibility, networking, and global health issues.

But this is definitely not a meeting dealing with high-minded theory alone. The aim of the conference is to come up with practical solutions; and to foster networks, training and resources not just for health ‘specialists’ but for ALL journalists and PRs who have to ‘handle’ health (which is a growing reality in many newsrooms), often with little or no training or support behind them.

The reasons for making the aims so practical and ongoing are clear enough, as explained by John Lister:

‘Health is big news. It’s hard to pick up a daily or weekly newspaper, listen or watch a news broadcast, or browse any mainstream news website without finding at least one health story.

‘The reason is obvious: health and health care are issues that relate to every single news consumer, in a way that few other issues actually do.

‘Add to this human interest stories on those coping with or overcoming illness, lifestyle and consumer health stories, and the wide range of medical stories on new treatments, new drugs, new diseases and feared epidemics – the list of angles goes on and on.

‘Quality health journalism offers a win-win for editors, journalists and the news audience. Compared with the lifeless rehashing of press releases and the surrender of editorial independence to the power of the advertising budget, it’s clearly far superior.  And if the critical approach is adopted on a consistent basis it need not delay the work of busy journalists, but improve the quality of the product they deliver.’

These drivers shaping the conference were echoed by Shaun Lintern:

‘The families of Mid Staffordshire would not have rested until their message had been heard. But working with a local newspaper was so much more effective for them and it became the conduit for their story.

‘The exposure in the press also finally gave some staff the ability to speak in confidence about what was happening. We know the culture was one of bullying and turning the other cheek to poor care but some brave nurses, doctors, managers and even cleaners did raise their voice once they saw the issues being highlighted in the local press.

‘At its very best journalism is an immense force for good. It can change the world and local journalism, supported and resourced, can make a huge difference to a community.

‘Local reporters working on the frontline are the true “monster” hunters. Society must support and recognise the value they bring.’

The conference website (www.europeanhealthjournalism.com) is now ranking second highest under Google for ‘health journalism’ – after the host university’s own MA course in that subject, reflecting the growing interest in what promises to be a highly creative and useful conference for this vital area of journalism and PR:

‘Continuing evidence of interest in the conference from journalists and organisations in Africa and India help confirm that this is a trail-blazing conference’ said John Lister, ‘we urge all those journalists working on health reporting who can beg borrow or steal the time off and the minimal fee to join us in Coventry.’



---------------
ECREA-Mailing list
---------------
This mailing list is a free service from ECREA and Nico Carpentier.
--
To subscribe, post or unsubscribe, please visit
http://www.ecrea.eu/mailinglist
--
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
--
Postal address:
ECREA
Chauss�de Waterloo 1151
1180 Uccle
Belgium
--
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
---------------