Columnist blogs about her breast cancer
Filed under: Health journalism, Hot Health Headline
NJ.com columnist Kathleen O’Brien has been blogging her breast cancer treatment experience from the beginning.
O’Brien’s posts address a mixture of big-picture issues (like avoiding a negative perspective and whether or not to participate in a clinical trial) and illuminating little anecdotes that show the subtle changes in daily life that accompany a cancer diagnosis and impending treatment (like saying goodbye to the hairdresser she won’t need now that she’s going to start chemotherapy). Her writing helps the reader gain a better understanding of the emotional and physical roller coaster upon which cancer patients are trapped.
Trib’s Triage blog ends, Graham goes investigative
Filed under: Health journalism, Hot Health Headline
The Chicago Tribune’s Triage blog has closed its doors and Judy Graham – the face of the blog for the past year – has moved on to the paper’s investigative and watchdog team.
Graham will still find time twice a month to write the sort of stories Triage writers have come to know; fans will be able to find them in the pages of the Chicago Tribune’s Sunday section and in other Tribune papers.
Plain Dealer adds ‘price compare’ feature
Filed under: Health journalism, Hot Health Headline
Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Sarah Jane Tribble recently announced a new feature for the paper’s health and fitness blog. Every week, Plain Dealer reporters will comparison shop for a medical treatment, then post a selection of area prices on the blog. 
Tribble said she hopes to empower consumers by showing them just how much prices can vary and enabling them to make more informed health care spending decisions. She invites suggestions from readers and will post prices based cash payments, without assistance from insurance. Tribble will find the prices in public databases, or by calling or visiting area medical providers.
Nature survey: Scientists gain influence with blogs
As newspapers shrink, fold or migrate entirely to the Internet, what will happen to science journalism? Like other topics, coverage is becoming fractured and the likelihood that the public will find meaningful and important stories as readily as before is uncertain, at best, according to an interesting
A survey by the publication of 493 science journalists shows that jobs are being lost and the workloads of those who remain are on the rise - 18.5 percent reported their workloads have increased dramatically. At the same time, researcher-run blogs and Web sites are growing in both number and readership. Moreover, traditional journalists are increasingly looking to these sites to find story ideas, although there’s also an increasing reliance on press releases and public relations machines.
“Whether directly or indirectly, scientists and the institutions at which they work are having more influence than ever over what the public reads about their work,” according to the Nature story. That’s because press releases and blogs, typically, can’t reach the same widespread audiences as mainstream media. However, some bloggers are gaining a wider audience. One example is Derek Lowe, a Vertex Pharmaceuticals scientist who writes the “In the Pipeline” blog and columns for The Atlantic.
piece in the latest issue of Nature.
” … unlike books and lectures, science blogs operate with a quick turnaround that more closely resembles that of the traditional media.”
Whether such sites can compensate, at least in part, for the upheaval appears unlikely, according to one traditional journalist. Peter Dykstra, who was executive producer of CNN’s science, technology, environment and weather unit before it was closed down last year, and is now at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, worries that the flow of information is forever changed. Science and environment news, he tells Nature, will be “ghettoized and available only to those who choose to seek it out.”
In a related editorial, Nature urges scientists to change old attitudes and “recognize the contributions of bloggers and others, and they should encourage any and all experiments that could help science better penetrate the news cycle.”
Related
- Report, survey look at health care journalism
- Researchers study health bloggers, form community
- NEJM article critical of health reporting
- Survey unmasks health, medical journalists
- AHCJers write ‘blogs that will open your eyes’
Live updates from health blogging summit
Consumer Reports is hosting a “health blogger summit” at its headquarters today. According to Jeremiah at Z Recommends:
“Their (Consumers Union’s) idea is to get bloggers, reporters, and the folks at Consumer Reports together to discuss how we can share information with consumers to empower them in making choices for their health.”
Although AHCJ wasn’t invited to the event, we’ve been closely following the discussion on Twitter. Several of the participants have been kind enough to post updates on the conversation. Looks like there was a great deal of talk about rankings of doctors and hospitals, as well as how to deal with comments on blogs.
See the discussion in progress and then come back here and tell us what you think.
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Health Journalism 2010, AHCJ's annual conference, features a world-class program with story ideas, sources, stronger reporting skills, chances to meet newsmakers and network with other journalists.
- Health and education: Covering these intersecting beats
- Reporting on the business of health care
- Health reporting resources for journalists on state and local government beats
- Shortened Lives: How location, lifestyle affect health
- Covering a complex story for the long haul
- Aging in the 21st Century: Presentations and tip sheets
- AHCJ calls for better information from Joint Commission Web site
