Health
USC Launches Health Care Reporting Project
- Michael Parks will chair the center's board of advisers.
- Photo/Maggie Smith
By Alex Boekelheide on September 22, 2009 8:01 AM
The USC Annenberg School for Communication has announced a partnership with the California HealthCare Foundation to do in-depth reporting on health policy issues throughout the state.
Funded by a three-year, $3.29 million grant, the California HealthCare Foundation Center for Health Reporting at the USC Annenberg School will team with journalists from traditional and emerging media to report on the most vexing health care issues facing the state: quality, access and cost.
“We are pleased and excited to launch such a critical venture with the California HealthCare Foundation,” Dean Ernest J. Wilson III. “In an era when traditional media are facing shrinking resources to cover the important issues of our society, we are fulfilling one of the school’s critical tenets: to be of service to all people. There is no better time and no better topic.”
The California HealthCare Foundation is an independent philanthropy committed to improving the way health care is delivered and financed in California.
Throughout its 12-year history, the foundation has shown a commitment to supporting and producing nonpartisan research and analysis to support evidence-based decision-making in government and the private sector.
“At this very turbulent time in the evolution of California’s media, it is important to support thoughtful, explanatory reporting on these crucial health care issues,” said Mark D. Smith, president and CEO of the Oakland-based foundation.
Leading the center will be journalism professor Michael Parks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former Los Angeles Times editor, who recently completed a seven-year term as director of the journalism school at USC Annenberg.
Parks will chair the center’s board of advisers and lead the center’s development. A nationwide search is under way for an editor in chief and a staff of journalists. The staff, to be based primarily in Los Angeles, will include one reporter in Sacramento.
“We are eager to dig into the health care issues that most affect Californians and provide the facts and information they need to make sense of the debate over reform of health care,” Parks said. “Through our partnerships with California newspapers and broadcasters, and with the staff we will recruit under this grant, I believe the center will provide much-needed impartial information on the difficult issues in health care, but will also be able to analyze proposed solutions to these problems objectively. And our work will be rooted into the communities affected by these issues, so people will understand the stakes in terms of their lives and the health of their families.”
Last year, Parks led a six-month pilot of the center concept and completed reports with the Merced Sun-Star, The Fresno Bee, The Santa Cruz Sentinel, The Redding Searchlight and The North County Times.
“This is a potent and trailblazing model,” said Mike Tharp, executive editor of the Merced Sun-Star. “The center’s resources, in the form of partnership with an editor, reporter and photographer, let us produce a series that I nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. The series still resonates around our community.”
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The Wall Street Journal highlighted the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College, and the $110 million gift from USC Trustee and USC Viterbi School alumnus John Mork and wife Julie to create the USC Mork Family Scholars Program.
KPCC-FM reported that this fall USC will offer Persian language courses for the first time. A $250,000 grant from the Farhang Foundation helped to establish the program. Bruce Zuckerman of the USC Dornsife College said he has many students interested in the Persian language, culture and region. “The Iranian region is one that has great impact on our lives today and has had great impact going back into ancient times,” he said. The story noted that USC and the Farhang Foundation hope to raise more money to create an Iranian studies minor. Payvand also featured the new courses.
American Songwriter ran a Q&A with Christopher Sampson of the USC Thornton School about the school’s Popular Music program, which Sampson founded. He noted that the program has been available as a major in Songwriting since 2009, and has incorporated a diverse range of musical genres. “We have now established a consistent track record of students having professional success to know that the program gets results,” Sampson said. He also highlighted the achievements of Songwriting faculty members Lamont Dozier, Andrea Stolpe and David Poe of the Thornton School.
The Economist featured research by Valter Longo of the USC Davis School finding that short periods of fasting could help cancer patients better tolerate chemotherapy, and may even make treatment more effective. The Globe and Mail (Canada) reported that cancerous tumors are essentially energy hogs. “They need to burn lots of energy just to stay alive,” Longo said. The study was also covered by Irish Independent (Ireland), Magyar Tavirati Iroda (Hungary), Anadolu Ajansi (Turkey), Son Haber (Netherlands), Vietnam+ (Vietnam), Turkish Radio and Television (Turkey) and Romania Libera (Romania).
L.A. Weekly featured research by USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, which has developed video games based around physical movement for people recovering from strokes or other injuries. The games develop strength in specific body parts. Traditional video games weren’t right for these patients, said the institute’s Belinda Lange. “Often, the fun parts of the game would only be unlocked after a series of other levels, which our patients often couldn’t achieve,” she said. The games are now being tested with physical therapists in three major clinics.
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