Insights

You learn a lot when you spend months reporting on a given issue or community, as our fellows can attest. Whether you’re embarking on a big new story or seeking to go deeper on a given issue, it pays to learn from those who’ve already put in the shoe leather and crunched the data. In these essays and columns, our community of journalists steps back from the notebooks and tape to reflect on key lessons, highlight urgent themes, and offer sage advice on the essential health stories of the day. 

Author(s)
By R. Jan Gurley

<p>In the intersection of online communities and health, Health 2.0 focused a session on behavior change. With so many of our chronic diseases due to lifestyle choices, online communities and tools hold the promise to help people make small, hard, and sustained incremental steps. The session reviewed some recent approaches, and the key to their success.</p>

Author(s)
By William Heisel

<p>Reporters everywhere felt their serotonin levels drop when reading Mary Walton’s well-reported and wonderfully written <a href="http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4904">Investigative Shortfall</a>, published last month in <em>American Journalism Review</em>.</p> <p>The ranks of investigative reporters have thinned in recent years, but Walton documents the clear-cutting of I-teams in, as she puts it, “dead tree media.” This fact alone should bring tears to any journalist’s eyes:</p>

Author(s)
By Barbara Feder Ostrov

<p>Here’s what we’re reading today:</p> <p><strong>Weight Loss:</strong> Can someone please explain why a weight-loss/sleep study with only 10 participants is <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&amp;cf=all&amp;topic=m&amp;ncl=dc… so much press</a>? Kudos to Foodconsumer.org’s Rachel Howell Stockton for highlighting <a href="http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/2/Obesity/sleep_quality_determines_… limitations of the study</a> while other media coverage hyperventilated.</p>

Author(s)
By Barbara Feder Ostrov

<p>Surgeon General Regina Benjamin got an earful today from participants in a conference call unveiling a high-level prevention council and strategy called for in the new health reform law.</p>