USC Center for Health Journalism

I thought Duluth’s lead threat was in the water. The data told a different story.

A data journalist set out to map Duluth's lead water lines, until experts pointed instead to the lead paint in the city's ...
USC Center for Health Journalism

Reporting on youth suicide in Native communities requires a different approach

A health reporter working on a story on Native American youth suicide learns that "just because you are ready to tell a story ...
USC Center for Health Journalism

The Health Divide: This breakthrough obesity drug is creating a big new health disparity

What happens when an expensive drug that works well for a condition affecting millions of people remains out of reach to many ...
USC Center for Health Journalism

“Don’t Stay Alone. Come Out”: Loneliness and Mental Health Among Korean American Seniors in LA

We talk with each other and eat together.” Each morning, some seniors make their way here. Not just for a meal. Not just for ...
centerforhealthjournalism

Access to health care limited in SD rural and reservation areas

SISSETON, S.D. – All it took in spring 2024 was two small, unrelated medical service interruptions to put women’s health at risk and expose the fragility of the health care system in rural and ...
centerforhealthjournalism

Beyond The White Savior: Black Narratives In Foster Care On Screen

Fancying myself to be a Black movie and TV connoisseur, I often incorporate a line – or two – from a classic or a hidden gem into my speech when appropriate. One of my favorites comes from the 2002 ...
centerforhealthjournalism

‘I Don’t Have Faith in Doctors Anymore.’ Women Say They Were Pressured Into Long-Term Birth Control

Miannica Frison was in the throes of labor in 2020 when a nurse entered her room at UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Ala. Frison was screaming in pain. But rather than see how she could help, Frison ...
centerforhealthjournalism

Deported from the hospital: the hidden crisis that puts seriously ill patients at risk

When Junior visits his wife, he sprays on the perfume she always loved, plays the songs they used to sing together, and sometimes wears the shirts she once said made him look handsome. On her good ...
centerforhealthjournalism

How filmmaker Rob Reiner put early childhood in the limelight

The story was produced as a project for USC Annenberg's 2018 National Fellowship. It also ran in LocalNewsMatters.org. This article is part of a series about First 5 — a tobacco tax initiative in ...
centerforhealthjournalism

More Iowa youth need mental health care. Has funding kept up with the demand?

When Heather Preston adopted her two sons, finding them care became her full-time job. After the siblings, whom Preston adopted from foster care, moved from a small southern Iowa town into her Des ...
centerforhealthjournalism

In Kachemak Bay, Kotzebue and beyond, Alaskans are on the lookout for harmful algae blooms

Algae is vital to a healthy marine system, and most of the hundreds of varieties in Alaska’s waters are beneficial or benign. But the handful that are harmful are, like other algae, proliferating in ...
USC Center for Health Journalism

The Stories We Tell: The Politics of Stigma and the Language of Immigration Reporting

Caricatures of immigrants, racist language and exclusionary laws can be traced back to the earliest days of the Republic. In this webinar, we’ll take a closer look at one aspect of that history and ...