Nieman Foundation and Pulitzer Center join forces to strengthen global health reporting

Nieman Foundation press release:

Sept 7, 2010

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A new collaboration between the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting will support international reporting initiatives with a special focus on global health coverage.

The partnership will also bring Pulitzer Center journalists to Harvard University for presentations and discussions on underreported international stories and provide an annual workshop for Nieman Fellows that will explore the Center's strategies for using multimedia platforms effectively; placing news stories in the media for maximum impact; and employing social media, educational networks and other techniques to engage the public in important global issues.

"This new venture will benefit not only Nieman Global Health Fellows but many other reporters covering international events and issues," explains Nieman Foundation curator Bob Giles. "We are grateful for the support of the Pulitzer Center and we are looking forward to working together to help shine a spotlight on topics that are too often neglected by the media today."

"The Nieman Foundation has for decades been a leading voice for the importance of high-quality reporting," adds Jon Sawyer, the Pulitzer Center's executive director. "We are honored to work with our colleagues there as together we explore how to sustain that vision at a time of profound change in the way journalism is produced and consumed."

The new collaboration grows out of the Nieman Foundation's specialized fellowship in global health reporting, which was launched at Harvard in 2006 and includes a four-month reporting project at the end of the academic year. Journalists in the program travel to the developing world to learn and report about health issues firsthand and recent participants have produced important, groundbreaking international health stories. However, due to the many recent changes affecting journalism, and international reporting in particular, placing those stories in mainstream media outlets is becoming increasingly difficult.

Based in Washington, D.C., the Pulitzer Center promotes, funds and publishes international reporting projects and has built a reputation as an innovator in keeping global affairs on local radar screens. In collaboration with the Nieman Foundation, the Center's staff will help Nieman Global Health Fellows with story planning and placement. The fellows will also be included in the Center's outreach program.

The new partnership is underwritten by a grant from the Pulitzer Center, which will cover the cost of the fieldwork for 2011 global health fellows Antigone Barton and Helen Branswell as well as for their counterparts in 2012 and 2013.

Established in 1938, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard administers the oldest midcareer fellowship program for journalists in the world. Working journalists of accomplishment and promise are selected to come to Harvard for a year of study, seminars and special events. More than 1,300 journalists from 90 countries have received Nieman Fellowships. In addition to administering the fellowship program, the foundation publishes the quarterly magazine Nieman Reports, the nation's oldest magazine devoted to a critical examination of the practice of journalism, and is home to the Nieman Journalism Lab, which identifies emerging business models and best practices in journalism in the digital media age. Additionally, the foundation produces Nieman Storyboard, a website that showcases exceptional narrative journalism, and the Nieman Watchdog Project, a website that encourages journalists to monitor and hold accountable all those who exert power in public life.

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is an innovative award-winning nonprofit journalism organization dedicated to supporting the independent international journalism that U.S. media organizations are increasingly less able to undertake. The Center focuses on underreported topics, promoting high-quality international reporting and creating platforms that reach broad and diverse audiences. Founded in 2006, the Center now supports over 50 international reporting projects a year in partnership with a wide range of print, radio, television and online outlets. The Center's online Gateways are in-depth explorations of systemic issues like fragile states, water access and sanitation, women and children in crisis, and maternal mortality, from across regions over a sustained period of time. Reports from the Center's journalists in the field are featured on Untold Stories. The Center also engages youth on global issues through global education initiatives in schools across the country.

CONTACT: Bob Giles, Curator
617-496-5827; [email protected]

View the original press release on the Nieman Foundation website.

View the Pulitzer Center reporting project, Heroes of HIV: HIV in the Caribbean, by Antigone Barton, Pulitzer Center grantee and 2011 Nieman Global Health Fellow.