Vector image of four people searching in different directions, with telescopes and magnifying glass

Guest column: Sincerely, Leaders of Color

If you have ever been a newsroom manager, hiring editor, assigning editor, or really anyone who has built up a network of colleagues that is diverse, you’ve probably been asked for help recruiting for an open position. By my best count, I’ve gotten about 20 requests for ideas for job candidates this year alone. And I […]

April 6 in Chicago: People-Centered Immigration Storytelling

I led a workshop at the Journalism and Women Symposium in Virginia in October that I think was supposed to be about technology. But the only tools anyone really needed was some scratch paper and a pen. What I’ve found in developing a social strategy for Public Radio International and for our immigration coverage, Global […]

SXSW Interactive: Learn from scientists for better journalism

Both journalism and science are about “the quest for truth” said the presenters at the SXSW Interactive panel “What Journalism Can Learn from Science.” Journalists know something is true when two people say so, said Gideon Lichfield, media editor of The Economist, and Matt Thompson, editorial product manager at NPR and adjunct faculty the Poynter […]

SXSW Interactive: Health media junkies spoiled with choices

Even though I’m no longer a SXSW Interactive newbie, this year’s huge selection of health-related panels has my head spinning. The geek in me is drawn to all the mobile application and gadget panels which will showcase eyes-light-up technology that promise everything from help losing weight to pocket-size medical devices that can collect and send […]

Temptations of Power

Reading about Wikileaks’ release of American diplomatic cables makes me think about our vocabulary around foreign policy. How do we talk about foreign policy and who exactly should have access to information that U.S. representatives abroad collect? This summer, Peter Beinart, autho told me that the public rarely drives foreign policy. In his book, he called […]

Health care reform, diabesity and the language of health journalism

Since Sunday evening this week, I’ve been spending time with National Health Journalism Fellows in downtown Los Angeles. We’ve visited slum housing, debated the terminology used in news reports about domestic violence, spent an evening at the ER, and dissected the legislative debates surrounding health care reform. You can read my live-blogging from the seminar […]

Stephen Farrell, Sultan Munadi and a panel on war correspondence

Yesterday’s news that The New York Times correspondent Stephen Farrell was freed from captivity in Northern Afghanistan has been met with mixed emotions. His fixer, journalist Sultan Munadi, was killed in a raid of the compound where the two were being held. George Packer at The New Yorker explains the often precarious position of fixers–the […]

A journalist’s role in reporting on conflict

Two Sri Lankan bloggers who I read regularly have recently had interesting things to say about the reporters who write about the long conflict on their island. They raise fundamental questions about the role of journalism in society, a debate that is heightened in conflict zones. Blogger-turned-columnist Indrajit Samarajiva gave this quick bit in a […]