Earlier this month, Online Journalism Review’s Robert Niles stirred things up with his lively post on the five most important beats for a local newspaper or website. As you might have heard, health didn’t make the cut (though the related “food” beat is at the top of the list).
Under pressure from commenters and tweeters, Niles conceded that health would be a contender for any “top 6” list. He elaborated on his health take in the comments, essentially arguing that local health coverage would fall under “Top 5” categories like labor, business and food.
Angilee Shah, who writes the Career GPS feature over at Reporting on Health, took Niles’ bait and defended health journalism with the help of AHCJ President Charles Ornstein and AHCJ Immediate Past President Trudy Lieberman.
Ornstein’s take:
Even if you factor in the health stories that can be written by the wires, think of all the local health institutions that consumers rely on—doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, assisted living centers, other health professionals. Do you really expect the reporter who covers the local bank or the local shopping scene to parachute in and cover these institutions well? A reporter covering health understands the difference between Medicare and Medicaid, assisted living and nursing homes, etc. To ask a local government reporter or education reporter to thoroughly cover food deserts in their community or childhood obesity in their schools is too big of a stretch.
And, Shah describes Lieberman’s take:
Lieberman takes an equally adamant stance. “I argue strenuously that this should be a beat, and it should be a dedicated beat with a well-trained reporter,” she said in a phone conversation. Dwindling local health coverage has increased the gap between Washington policy makers and the communities their policies affect. Local journalists should be explaining the effects of complicated health care laws on specific communities. She points to “bright spots” in local health news, such as a Las Vegas Sun series about hospital safety in Nevada.
“I think reporters need to know what’s allowed and how that should translate into what people are seeing, and whether or not they’re being deceived at a local level,” Lieberman said. “It’s a Washington story but it’s not a Washington story. It’s a local story.”
Your take?
There are plenty of small-town reporters in AHCJ, many of whom have more than just health care on their plates. What do you folks think? How many reporters does a newspaper or website need to have before it can dedicate one of them to health care journalism?
