journalist education

Part of BMSG’s mission is to help journalists improve their coverage of public health issues by asking better questions about the causes of and solutions to public health problems. Because we research news coverage from our public health perch, we often uncover potential story ideas and new questions for reporters to ask.

Reporters can find research-based story suggestions within our publications on health equity and environmental justice, children’s health, childhood trauma, paid family leave, breastfeeding, childhood nutrition policy, the sale of soda and junk food in schools, soda taxes, school shootings and other violence among youth, sexual violence, abortion stigma and more.

We have partnered with journalists and journalism professors to create tools and bring trainings on public health perspectives directly into newsrooms. See details from our Reporting on Violence project. Additional resources, including media contacts, are available in our newsroom and publications.

However, the learning process with journalists goes both ways. In addition to sharing our public health expertise with journalists, we regularly invite reporters, editors, and journalism instructors to share their knowledge and experiences with us. Through our Journalism Brain Trust, these media professionals, from a range of organizations, publications, and beats, offer feedback on our research findings. This helps us develop recommendations that are informed by current journalism practice and disseminate our work to the journalists best equipped to use it.

Interested in joining our Journalism Brain Trust or in having us do a training for your newsroom? Contact us at info@bmsg.org.