The convergence of the racial justice movement with the ongoing global health crisis generated challenging working conditions for reporters. The personal nature of the racial unrest compounded these challenges for journalists of color, in particular. “As Black people, we’re battling two pandemics — we're battling racism and we're battling COVID-19,” said journalist, filmmaker and freelance photographer Cydney Tucker during an ICFJ Global Health Crisis Reporting Forum webinar in December.
We’ve had by far one of the most unexpected and challenging years in history with a global pandemic, and one that’s hit an already struggling journalism industry hard. Despite these challenges, journalists from around the world came together in the ICFJ Global Health Crisis Reporting Forum to learn from medical experts, epidemiologists, veteran health reporters, fact-checkers and each other to cover what is likely to be the story of the century, a 21st-century pandemic.
Newsroom management can be a balancing act between people and content, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made finding that balance even more difficult. During a recent IJNet/ICFJ Global Health Crisis Reporting Forum webinar AJ+ Supervising Executive Producer Jon Laurence acknowledged the difficult balance and shared ways he and his team have tried to adapt.
With accessible technology and social tools available to anyone, media is no longer exclusive to journalists and journalism-adjacent careers. With just a few cheap — or even free — tools, anyone can create a podcast. The challenge becomes creating compelling content that the audience actually wants.
Communicating data can feel like an overwhelming task. As journalists, how can we translate extensive numbers-based research and analysis into coherent, comprehensible reporting?
Data journalists have honed this skill set. They’ve refined how to best present data-related findings to most effectively inform their readers.
“Over 36 years, ICFJ has provided more than 150,000 journalists from 180 countries with valuable programs and resources,” said ICFJ President Joyce Barnathan at our Tribute for Journalists 2020. But what are the programs, fellowships, global exchanges and awards available now? And what can journalists do to become part of the ICFJ network?
Investigative journalist Ani Mejlumyan recalls the onset of COVID-19. The day after Armenia declared a state of emergency in mid-March, the government censored the media to prevent them from reporting on the pandemic. Restaurants, meanwhile, remained open for ten more days.
As COVID-19 spread across Europe, countries like France, Italy, Spain and the U.K. faced high rates of cases, hospitalizations and deaths due to the virus. Germany, meanwhile, eluded similar levels of transmission and suffering among its citizens.
