Investigations in Health Journalism: Covid and Beyond
Saturday April 9, 2022. City, University of London
Meet the speakers (A-Z) and find out more about their sessions…
Rebecca Coombes, Head of Journalism, BMJ
Panelist: Medical journalism post-Covid
Covid-19 has been an intense time for those working in health journalism. During this panel session we will ask leading health journalists what they have learnt reporting on the pandemic, how that has changed the way stories are covered and what they think the next big topics will be.
Lawrence Dunhill, Bureau Chief, Health Service Journal
Panelist: Medical journalism post-Covid
Covid-19 has been an intense time for those working in health journalism. During this panel session we will ask leading health journalists what they have learnt reporting on the pandemic, how that has changed the way stories are covered and what they think the next big topics will be.
Biography: Lawrence joined HSJ in May 2015, after several years reporting on the NHS for regional newspapers, mainly in Lancashire. He reports on the North West region, but also specialises in national policy and finances. He was named specialist journalist of the year at the Press Gazette’s British Journalism Awards in 2020, for his work reporting on the coronavirus pandemic, and won ‘scoop of the year’ at the British Society of Magazine Editors awards in 2021.
Amara Sophia Elahi, Impact Reporter BBC News
Workshop Leader. Data journalism: getting the most out of surveys and mass testimony investigations
Learn how to design surveys: useful tips, things to consider etc, and then find out how Amara has used these techniques within her journalism. Come with story ideas or work with some suggested by Amara so that you can then have practical experience of developing ideas and designing surveys/research projects.
Biography: Amara Sophia Elahi is a multi-platform Impact Reporter for BBC News, whose work focuses on Health and Investigations. She has expertise in data-led journalism, and often works with surveys and Freedom of Information requests to generate original, agenda-setting stories. She has a deep interest in inequities within healthcare, and has reported on stories relating to bullying and discrimination within the NHS, racial bias in medical regulatory processes, the experiences of ethnic minority healthcare workers during the pandemic, and health inequalities affecting under-represented and marginalised communities. Amara’s work has featured on flagship outlets including the BBC’s 6 and 10 o clock news programmes, Breakfast TV, Radio 4, the World Service, and it has also been picked up externally and has led to policy change within institutions.
Rosa Furneaux, Global Health Investigative Reporter, Bureau of Investigative Health Journalism
Speaker: Investigative journalism – How Covax failed to deliver
In 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold, a new initiative called Covax had an ambitious idea: to vaccinate the world. But by the following autumn, its plan to distribute jabs fairly around the globe was badly off-target. What went wrong? Rosa Furneaux, a global health reporter at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, will discuss her investigation into Covax, and consider how health journalists can report global stories that centre the voices of the people most affected.
Biography: Rosa’s reporting on Covid-19 vaccine access, Pfizer vaccine contracts, and medical supply chains has been published around the world. During the pandemic, her team’s work has won the Association of British Science Writers’ award for best investigative journalism, and the Foreign Press Association Science Story of the Year prize. Previously, she worked for investigative news magazine Mother Jones and freelanced for publications in the UK, US and East Africa. She holds a master’s in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley.
George Greenwood, Investigations Report, The Times
Speaker: Investigative journalism – The truth behind PPE contracts
George will focus on how the team at the Times combined sources, freedom of information requests and Companies House records to reveal stories about controversial Coronavirus procurement. His investigations into PPE contracts range from ‘Matt Hancock helped Tory secure £180m PPE deal: Emails reveal how the health secretary assisted a disgraced former minister acting for a pet food entrepreneur’ to ‘German aristocrat and cannabis firms given PPE contracts: An energy firm that sells solar panels, a “no win, no fee” personal injury claims firm and companies selling cannabis extracts all landed NHS contracts to supply PPE, The Times can reveal.’
Biography: George Greenwood is investigations reporter at The Times. He specialises in the use of freedom of information requests and open data. George started his career at BBC News, moving to The Times in 2018 as a data journalist and joining the investigations team in 2021.
Richard Hollingham, Executive Producer, Boffin Media
Workshop Leader: Should I make a podcast?
Everyone seems to enjoy podcasts. But is this the right time to make one or is the bubble about to burst and – more importantly – will it make any money? This session will cover the basics: what is required to make a podcast and the reasons why they can be a powerful form of communication or a potential waste of marketing budget. This useful introductory overview to the medium will cover a variety of styles (with plenty of examples), the basic technical tools and expertise needed, explore if podcasting is right for you and whether it will be worth the effort. There will also be an opportunity for a select few to be interviewed with professional broadcasting equipment during the session for group feedback.
Mark Honigsbaum, Senior Lecturer, Department of Journalism City, University of London
Chair: Investigative journalism (Plenary Session)
Biography: Dr Mark Honigsbaum is a medical historian, journalist and academic with wide-ranging interests encompassing health, technology, science and contemporary culture. A regular contributor to The Lancet and The Observer, he is the author of five books including Living With Enza: The Forgotten Story of Britain and the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918 (Macmillan, 2009) and The Pandemic Century: One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria and Hubris (Hurst; Norton, 2019) which was named a “heath book of the year” by the Financial Times and “science book of the year in The Times. A former Wellcome Research Fellow, Mark is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Journalism at City, University of London, where he teaches an MA specialism in health and science reporting and is researching the relationship between pandemics and cultural memory.
Catherine Jones, Health Correspondent, Channel 5 News
Panelist: Medical journalism post-Covid
Covid-19 has been an intense time for those working in health journalism. During this panel session we will ask leading health journalists what they have learnt reporting on the pandemic, how that has changed the way stories are covered and what they think the next big topics will be.
Sofia Lind, Deputy Editor, Pulse
Panelist: Medical journalism post-Covid
Covid-19 has been an intense time for those working in health journalism. During this panel session we will ask leading health journalists what they have learnt reporting on the pandemic, how that has changed the way stories are covered and what they think the next big topics will be.
Nigel Praities, Executive Editor, The Pharmaceutical Journal and Chair of the MJA
Chair: Medical journalism post-Covid
Covid-19 has been an intense time for those working in health journalism. During this panel session we will ask leading health journalists what they have learnt reporting on the pandemic, how that has changed the way stories are covered and what they think the next big topics will be.
Rachel Schraer, Health and Disinformation Reporter, BBC
Speaker: Investigative journalism – Inside NHS test and trace
Biography: Rachel is a senior reporter covering health, wellness and the mis- and disinformation that surrounds it on social media and beyond. She worked for the BBC’s health team through the first 18 months of the pandemic and before that spent 5 years as a fact-checker for Reality Check specialising in health, social affairs and UK politics.
Rebecca Thomas, Health Correspondent, The Independent
Speaker: Investigative health journalism – Reporting on mental health during the pandemic
Mental Health has been tipped as the “next pandemic”. The truth is the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of the nation and the healthcare services is likely to be realised over many years – although we are already seeing huge surges in need for children’s mental healthcare. As a former correspondent for the Health Service Journal, I specialised in mental health and spent much of the pandemic focussed on the growing impacts of Covid-19 on mental healthcare. During my presentation I will explore this and some investigative pieces, which were not related to Covid but long-standing problems within England’s mental health system.
Emma Wilkinson, Freelance Medical and Health Journalist and Vice Chair of the MJA
Workshop leader: Developing ideas and pitching
Join Emma for this session on developing story ideas and learning how to pitch them successfully. Emma is co-founder of Freelancing for Journalists, a book, podcast, newsletter and training provider.
