Webinar: Reframing Media Narratives of Addiction

Join Pulitzer Center grantees Justin Maxon and Judith Surber as they examine the journalistic ethic of doing no harm when reporting on substance abuse. The discussion will cover trauma-informed storytelling and how media depictions of addiction affect both the public’s perception of recovery and those featured in photographs.

Centered on their project, Youth, Fentanyl, Recovery, originally published in The New York Times, Maxon and Surber illustrate how a story of one family illuminates larger systemic failures. They will discuss how to build empathy and understanding among audiences.

Maxon and Surber will be joined by their editors, Jacqueline Bates, photography director of Opinion at The New York Times, and Alexandra Sifferlin, health and science editor for The New York Times Opinion desk.

The conversation will be moderated by Pulitzer Center Outreach Program Coordinator Mikaela Schmitt, followed by an audience Q&A. Registration is required.

This webinar is the second in a two-part series, following Maxon’s and Surber’s visit to Photoville in New York City. In the first conversation, Beyond the Outsider’s Gaze: Partnering With Communities in Visual Storytelling, panelists explore how collaboration with communities during the reporting process can make better and more-accurate stories.

Panelists: 

• Justin Maxon is a photographer, writer, and filmmaker committed to working on projects that reveal different variables of truth in humanities' conflicted existence and incorporate various artistic forms and expressions.
• Judith Surber is an author, mother, grandmother, and a Hoopa Tribal member. She is the manager for the Medication Assisted Treatment program at K’ima:w Medical Center.
• Jacqueline Bates is the photography director of Opinion at The New York Times. She was the founding photography director at The California Sunday Magazine. 
• Alexandra Sifferlin is the health and science editor for The New York Times Opinion desk. Previously, she was a staff writer at TIME magazine.

Images courtesy of the Pulitzer Center. United States, 2024.