We want to hear from you on the Center's new online look

The Center for Health Journalism website has a bold new look. We would love to hear what you think about it!

Our redesign incorporates modern design elements to be easier on the eye. Our goal: to make it simple for you to use — to explore the work being done by journalists we partner with and the opportunities we offer for learning, growth and impact.

We also hope that the site helps you better understand our story. We share how the Center for Health Journalism has reinvented itself through the years to serve reporters and their communities as journalism itself has undergone fundamental shifts. When we founded the Center in 2004, newsroom budgets were ample and outlets had whole teams covering health. Yet the riches didn’t always translate into the kind of thoughtful journalism we are seeing today from our Fellows and grantees, reporting that investigates community conditions to reveal the forces that stand in the way of opportunity and good health — from factories belching out emissions to schools that don’t provide a supportive learning environment.

Since we launched nearly 20 years ago, our model of journalism has played a fundamental role in changing the national narrative on health. “Ask different questions,” Michael Parks, the late director of the USC Annenberg School of Journalism, advised me as I began building a blueprint for the Center’s work as its founding director. For us, that meant giving journalists the tools to practice the craft in transformative ways — more respectful of the stories communities tell, more engaged in channeling the expertise of those with lived experience, and more nuanced in the portrayal of systems that harm the health and well-being of families across generations. We serve reporters through webinars, a vibrant online community, powerful news collaboratives and intensive Fellowships and Impact Funds. These programs help them tackle the kinds of big ambitious projects that are increasingly difficult to undertake in today’s news environment. 

We’re optimists who see the promise for transformative change through journalism – even at a time when our nation and industry face enormous challenges and what the World Health Organization called an “infodemic” of misinformation. As we say in our mission statement: “For us, journalism is the essential tool for illuminating the lived experiences and humanity of those otherwise left unseen and unheard. The Center’s mission is to empower and equip journalists to tell these stories in collaboration with communities – with depth, humility and rigor — not just to spur more enlightened policy or remedy long injustice, but as a means of helping communities to shape their own futures.”  

We were aided immeasurably in this web redesign by the strategic smarts of the teams at Theory One Design and DevCollaborative, by the generous support of our foundation partners, and by the talented team here at Center for Health Journalism. A special thanks goes to our Content Editor Ryan White for his dedication and indispensable contributions.

We know that online attention spans are measured in nanoseconds, not minutes. But if you might, sit down for a spell with a cup of coffee and share your feedback on the new CenterforHealthJournalism.org. You’ll find:  

• Our case studies – which showcase the work of journalists who partner with us to produce impactful stories
• Our reporting model – which explores a strategic framework for impact through journalism and how we define health ­— rooted in an expansive health equity framework
• The exemplary reporting – thousands of stories – that reporters have produced in partnership with the Center
• Our community engagement efforts, in which we team with reporters to rethink their reporting relationships with communities they serve
• Our news collaboratives, which bring together reporters and outlets to work together on a given issue for maximum impact
• Our history — and how we’ve evolved as journalism has changed

Thanks for stopping by. As always, we seek to continue to learn and improve. Here’s a link to a quick survey to share your feedback.

Happy reading!