Dalla Lana School of Public Health

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• Register Here

The fifth COVID-19 webinar will explore how journalism and public communications are key public health assets in pandemic response.

About this Event

Public health experts agree on the principle: Public communications are a critical function in outbreak management. Governments have to communicate well, and journalists are key – but independent – partners in the work.

COVID hits at a time when the relationship between governments, scientists and journalists is fraught; and in the midst of a crisis that has been shaking media organizations for years. Communications around this pandemic has been a story of both heroic efforts, and major shortcomings.

DLSPH experts will discuss the strengths and vulnerabilities of the partnership between governments, public health experts and journalists. Experts will review what researchers learned about public communications during the SARS outbreak, including the Naylor report, post-SARS guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control, and studies of the role that public communications played in mitigating the long-term mental health risks arising from quarantine.

They will also take the audience inside a news organization through the experience of an investigative journalist trying to hold governments accountable in the context of COVID-19. They will also explore how editors and reporters are making decisions in the current environment.

Finally, the panel’s experts will offer public health professionals and researchers’ advice on how to help journalists deploy media as an effective public health asset in pandemic response, while respecting its unique needs.

Panel

• Moderator: Ross Upshur, Professor, Clinical Public Health Division
• Robert Steiner, Director, Dalla Lana Fellowship in Global Journalism Dalla Lana School of Public Health Sciences
• Robert Cribb, investigative and foreign affairs reporter at the Toronto Star

The webinar will take place on Zoom on April 22, 2020 – spots are limited! You will receive a link and password for the webinar TWO HOURS before the event.

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Can’t join us? The conversations will continue online! DLSPH is flipping the classroom and hosting a Twitter chat on April 23, 2020.

Attendees will have the opportunity to chat directly with the experts on Twitter on April 23 at noon for DLSPH’s first Twitter chat of 2020.

When you sign-up for the Twitter chat at registration:

• You will receive a link to the recording of the webinar two hours before the Twitter chat. It will give you enough time to watch the webinar (the one hosted on April 22nd) and come up with questions.

• Include your twitter handle and a question

• Using the hashtag #COVID19DLSPH, DLSPH’s twitter account will ask you to share your thoughts and comment on your fellow attendees’ questions. DLSPH experts will be joining along to provide further comments.

• The Twitter chat starts at noon and will end at 1 p.m. The hashtag will be #COVID19DLSPH

Trusted voices are crucial during these unprecedented times and DLSPH is well-positioned to provide them.

Resources to Read

• GTA medical clinics being probed after two employees test positive for COVID-19 — and the public wasn’t told