Broadcast Fellows Projects of 2009
From health disparities to depression, "food deserts" to prison medical care, the broadcast projects of our recent California Endowment Health Journalism Fellows covered a wide variety of critical health issues. Here's a sampling of their work:
Bianca Alexander and Michael Alexander of Conscious Living TV reported on the health effects of lack of healthy foods in inner-city neighborhoods and some environmentally friendly efforts to solve the problem in "The Growing Solution to Urban Food Deserts". Food deserts are urban neighborhoods where residents have limited to access to fresh healthy produce from farmers markets or full-service grocery stores.
Zoe Corneli examined the challenges faced by young uninsured people public health insurance program in a three-part series for KALW radio. Her first report focused on why young people go without health care. Her second report covered one patient's difficulties navigating the safety net health system, and her third detailed why and how some young people break the rules to get the care they need.
Freelancer Rachel Dornhelm reported two stories for the public radio program Marketplace focusing on how big changes to the federal government's long-running WIC food program might affect the health of the women and children it serves. Her first story examined changes at WIC-certified stores, while her second detailed how food manufacturers are adapting to the new WIC guidelines.
Sheraz Sadiq, a producer for the KQED science and health program QUEST, developed an 11-minute documentary on depression for the San Francisco public radio station. You can see it and read the transcript here.
KPCC state capitol reporter Julie Small is working on a series of reports about prison medical care. Here's one story on prison health staffing that already has aired on the Southern California public radio station.
KQED producer Polly Stryker focused on health reform in three reports for the station's program Health Dialogues. The first covers the politics of health reform, the second fact-checks the debate's more heated rhetoric, and the third features conversations with stakeholders including patients, doctors and insurers.
Kelley Weiss, reporter for Capital Public Radio in Sacramento, delved into the federal SSI cash assistance program for the disabled and elderly in a two-part series called Senior Insecurity. In the first report, Weiss looks at the impact of SSI cuts on the people served by this massive government program. In the second, she investigates poor oversight of SSI payments.
Kudos to these Fellows for their great work!