Insights

The media tends to focus on national chains such as Target and Walmart that have taken steps to offer healthier products. But the work being done to improve small stores provides a great opportunity for reporters to tell local stories in underserved areas.

In too many states, you cannot get access to death certificates without being a next of kin, an attorney, or a law enforcement official. Frankly, that's absurd. Here are two examples from recent headlines that show why death certificates can prove so useful.

Cohen recently gave California fellows a master class in how to approach public records. In her talk, Cohen stressed the level of pre-reporting that needs to be done before filing a request. Here are a few key takeaways.

Just five years ago, newly minted doctors looking for jobs in a desirable city had to get in line. Doctors hoping to score work in cosmopolitan Los Angeles, for example, often found themselves commuting hours to faraway locales. That has dramatically changed. But why?

Bloomberg Media is looking for a consumer health reporter to join the editorial team at its flagship online publication. Plus, consider putting your application together for the 2016 California Health Journalism Fellowship by the Center for Health Journalism.

The health insurance marketplaces offer consumers a multitude of options, but sorting out which plan bests suit their needs can be a slog. That’s especially true when it comes to figuring out whether a particular doctor is part of a plan’s network, since the directories are famously unreliable.

A reporting project on the rising incidence of diabetes among Indian communities finds virtue in taking an explanatory approach. "Linking our cuisine to impactful statistics and studies, I hoped, would grab the reader’s attention," California Fellow Parimal Rohit writes.

Notions of personal failure and our collective ignorance of what it’s like to live on $8.60 a day help explain why 20 states have not covered the very poorest, and why Medicaid as we know it could disappear.

USC Annenberg’s Center for Health Journalism brought together state health officials and journalists on Friday to discuss how the two groups can work together more to foster better access to key datasets and the high-impact journalism that can result.

I experienced a crushing failure as an investigative reporter that I hope none of you ever have to experience. But I learned some important lessons along the way, including the need to focus my questions, narrow the scope, and embrace imperfect data.