A new public health news bureau staffed by UGA graduate students will soon give voice to people and health-related issues often overlooked in the state. Student reporters from the health and medical journalism concentration in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication will supply stories for print, radio and television outlets throughout Georgia.
The project is funded by the Healthcare Georgia Foundation. Created in 1999 as an independent private foundation, its mission is to advance the health of all Georgians and to expand access to affordable, quality healthcare for underserved individuals and communities.
“The public health news bureau is a 21st century riff on a traditional wire service,” said Patricia Thomas, Grady’s Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism and head of the graduate concentration. “It gives our students a chance to show what they’ve learned about covering health, and to be paid for their hard-won professional skills.”
High infant mortality, soaring obesity rates and an aging public health workforce are among the public health stories that are seldom told in Georgia, according to Thomas. As a result, many voters and policymakers don’t realize that Georgia’s per capita spending on health is about a nickel a day—near the bottom of national rankings.
Student reporters will be paid with funding, awarded in late December, from the Healthcare Georgia Foundation. A major trend story written by a student is expected to pay about $750 with additional compensation for photographs and video. Research expenses also will be covered. Over the next two years, a $46,000 grant will be used to pay students to do this work.
Editors at Hayslett Group LLC, an Atlanta-based communications firm, will negotiate news bureau assignments, work with students as they report stories and edit the stories for publication and broadcast.
“The news bureau challenges students to tell complex, in-depth stories that have become financially out-of-reach for many news organizations in recent years,” Thomas said. Georgia news organizations will not be charged for publishing or broadcasting what the students produce.
The public health news bureau is part of a larger, two-year program called Advancing Public Health in Georgia. This initiative is funded solely by the Healthcare Georgia Foundation through a $307,500 award to the Hayslett Group. The firm’s founder and CEO, Charlie Hayslett, is a 1973 Grady College alumnus and serves on the Grady College Board of Trust, the college’s advisory board.
