Insights

<p>According to a <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/Adults-and-Social-Network-Websi… Internet and American Life social networking survey</a>, 35% of online adults had profiles on social networking sites in 2008, compared to 8% in 2005. Online social networking is still a "phenomenon of the young" for how ubiquitous Facebook and MySpace is among 18 to 24 year-olds, but 35% of adults overall have profiles on networking sites. African-American and Hispanic adults are more likely to have profiles than whites adults.</p>

<p>Investigative reporting on a deadline is all about having a great Rolodex.</p><p>ABC News' Lisa Stark says, "The key thing about sources is that you need them as much, if not more when you do daily news."</p><p>Echoing NBC's Robert Bazell in the keynote speech of the seminar, Stark and Michael Berens of the Seattle Times say that there is no shortcut to cultivating good sources. Having strong relationships with a large base of people who will provide you with information takes time and persistence.</p>

<p>Lack of primary care and attention to chronic disease are the real ills of the health care system, panelists said at a seminar on health care reform for California Broadcast Fellows.</p><p>Anthony Iton, public health officer for Alameda County, says that 3 out of every 4 health care dollars goes to the treatment of chronic disease. "It is the elephant in the room. If you're not talking about chronic disease, you're not talking about health," he says.</p>

<p>Mark Katches is the deputy managing editor for projects at the <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/">Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</a>. He leads a team of reporters who have been watch-dogging the use of chemicals in food containers and other products for the past two years.

<p>Robert Bazell doesn't mince his words when it comes to what he thinks makes good journalism. The three-time Emmy winner and NBC News' chief science and health correspondent doesn't put much stock in journalism school.</p>
<p>"Being a good reporter isn't about having the academic credentials," Bazell explained. What counts, he said in his keynote speech to this year's California Broadcast Fellows, is the ability to talk to the right people. "I think that all reporting is community reporting," he said.</p>

<p>In a world of sound bites, 140-character reports and information overdose on the Internet, news about health often doesn't get all the airtime it deserves. The first session of a seminar for broadcast journalists will look at ways television, radio and multimedia journalists can boost coverage and depth in their reports.</p>

<p>When does it make sense to tamper with a time-released medication? If the drug is a controlled substance, like the painkiller <a href="http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/concern/oxycodone.html">OxyContin</a&gt;, the answer is: never.</p><p>Doing so damages the time-released properties of the drug and can lead to a massive dose all at once. This is what makes OxyContin such a great high for people who crush it, and such a long, painful addiction for them, too.</p>

<p>Writer, editor and blogger Angilee Shah is live-blogging the California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships seminar for broadcasters taking place May 28-31 in Los Angeles. She's also on Twitter @ReportonHealth.</p><p>Angilee, a former managing editor of <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/">AsiaMedia</a&gt;, has written for the Far Eastern Economic Review, The China Beat, TimeOut Singapore , Asian GEOgraphic and Asia Pacific Arts.</p>

<p>The American Academy of Pediatrics doesn't issue policy statements all that often. When it does, the statements tend to be deeply researched and full of fodder for future stories. That's the case with the <a href="http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/pediatrics;12… Built Environment: Designing Communities to Promote Physical Activity in Children,"</a> which appears today in the AAP journal <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/">Pediatrics</a&gt;. </p>

<p>It's a common complaint among police officers. In the wake of television shows like CSI, the public expects too much. They think that cops can lift a 30-year-old fingerprint off a Pabst Blue Ribbon bottle found at the bottom of a lake just by running it through the portable 30-PBR-H2O scanner the CSI team members carry in their Thermoses. </p><p>That type of technology just doesn't exist, police are fond of saying. And even some of the high-tech stuff that does exist is only accessible by the elite officers of the major metropolitan departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. </p>