Friday-Saturday, May 2-3, 2008
South Campus Center
University of Washington

A look back at the conference:
(Click on a photo to see the larger image)

 

By Michael Carter
           
The University of Washington Department of Communication, along with several co-sponsors, hosted a three-day conference for journalists about the emerging field of global health and the complexities surrounding the scientific, medical and political issues associated with it.

The co-sponsors included the UW Department of Global Health, the Center for Global Studies and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.

Global health, a focus that has emerged from obscurity during the past decade, has become a focal point of public attention, garnering unprecedented amounts of money and scientific research for third-world nations afflicted by disease.

During discussions with expert panelists from around the world and from a wide array of backgrounds, journalists and presenters assessed what is and what isn’t working in media coverage of global-health issues.

The University of Washington hosted the event with the intention of connecting journalists with experts from various fields to discuss responsible coverage.

Panels covered such topics as innovations in disease prevention and treatment, who sets global health services and aid agendas, emerging diseases, inequality and health and the effects of climate change and private business on global health.

The Pacific Northwest is emerging as a hub for philanthropic and scientific initiatives in global health, housing one of the nation’s largest research programs, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with other important biotech companies and nonprofit organizations.

With the growing pervasiveness of such organizations and efforts, global health issues are increasingly relevant to local audiences, a necessity to create awareness and stimulate change, according to keynote speaker Joe Cerrell, the director of Global Health Policy and Advocacy for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The organization is trying to promote global health focuses in the media, through pop culture and politics.

“We highlight problems and promote solvability, promote policies and systems to encourage solutions and create public and political will to solve those problems.”

Cerell said AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria kill 6 million people annually worldwide.

Ruth White, an assistant professor of social work at Seattle University, said that responsible advocacy and reporting should avoid stereotyping and the glorification of the poor.

 “Health systems don’t cater to fashionable diseases but to needs,” she said. “If you cure a kid for measles he’ll die of malnutrition instead. Issues such as hunger and well-being should be treated.”

That begs the question as to what type of reporting is the most appropriate to incite the most beneficial form of change. The UW conference was designed to help journalists navigate such questions and complex issues in the rapidly expanding field of global health.