Tuesday, January 14

Journalism

It can’t happen here – and then it did
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Journalism

It can’t happen here – and then it did

When Americans think of journalists attacked, arrested or imprisoned while doing their job, they think of it happening in distant lands – in places like Russia, Syria, Afghanistan, El Salvador and Mexico. There have already been at least 100 instances of journalists being assaulted or harassed while covering recent protests. Nick Lehr/The Conversation, CC BY Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are so ingrained in the American consciousness, citizens may have been lulled into thinking that these acts of intimidation couldn’t possibly happen on American soil. And then they did. On May 29, police in Minnesota arrested a CNN journalist who was covering the Minneapolis protests, leading him and two crew members away in handcuffs. This wasn’t a one-off. In Los Angeles, an officer s...
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Reflecting on the case of Cyntoia Brown – talking with the director of ‘Murder to Mercy’
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Journalism

Reflecting on the case of Cyntoia Brown – talking with the director of ‘Murder to Mercy’

Cyntoia Brown walked out of prison in August 2019 after serving 15 years of a life sentence for a murder she committed when she was 16. Her story is the focus of “Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story,” a Netflix feature documentary. Dan Birman directed this documentary and another on Cyntoia’s life that aired on PBS in 2011. He is a professor of professional practice and teaches documentary at the University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. What does Cyntoia’s case tell us about the US justice system? Cyntoia Brown’s case follows a complex social and legal path, but her story is common to thousands of young people in the justice system. As of 2017, there were nearly 44,000 juveniles locked up in America, and more than two-thirds were black or ...
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Poor and black ‘invisible cyclists’ need to be part of post-pandemic transport planning too
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Journalism

Poor and black ‘invisible cyclists’ need to be part of post-pandemic transport planning too

As states and workplaces prepare to open up after the lockdown, many people are looking for alternatives to public transit to get to work. The National Association of City Transport Officials reports an “explosion in cycling” in many U.S. cities. Bike stores are selling out, and global supply chains are struggling to meet demand. But the post-pandemic ride will be more bumpy for some. Low-income and minority groups are often more reliant on cheaper modes of travel such as cycling. Back in 2013, the League of American Bicyclists reported that “the fastest growth in bicycling is among the Hispanic, African American and Asian American populations.” Yet these groups may find cycling to work more problematic. As a professor of urban and environmental policy and planning, I believe it critica...
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Obamacare’s insurance safety net protects many of the millions losing their employer-provided health insurance – but not all
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HEALTH & WELLNESS, Journalism

Obamacare’s insurance safety net protects many of the millions losing their employer-provided health insurance – but not all

The loss of 31 million jobs due to coronvirus has an added downside: 27 million have lost job-based health insurance. The worst may still lie ahead. One study estimated that 25 to 43 million people could lose coverage from their employer. The situation for many Americans feels dramatic. Fortunately, the limited U.S. safety net will be able to cushion some of the fallout for almost 80% through programs like Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. And, of course, all preexisting conditions are still required to be covered by all insurers. Yet millions will be left without coverage. As a professor of public policy, I believe there are four things you need to consider if you’ve been laid off, or if you didn’t have health insurance before th...
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Social distancing is no reason to stop service learning – just do it online
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EDUCATION, Journalism

Social distancing is no reason to stop service learning – just do it online

At Troy University in Alabama, students went online to help a county with a high infant mortality rate in the state of Georgia to analyze health disparities and develop solutions. At Cornell University, where I teach, law students are providing legal services online to death-row inmates in Tanzania and children and young farmworkers in upstate New York. At five state universities in the U.S. heartland, students are helping Michigan towns create government websites. These are all examples of “e-service learning” – that is, service learning that takes place online. Service learning refers to a wide range of student experiences meant to help a community organization, local government or business. I am an education researcher and – along with my colleague Yue Li – I am investigating the b...
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Black Americans are bearing the brunt of coronavirus recession – this should come as no surprise
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HEALTH & WELLNESS, Journalism

Black Americans are bearing the brunt of coronavirus recession – this should come as no surprise

As the COVID-19 pandemic worsened in April, many Americans were shocked by the extent that black Americans were being disproportionately impacted: higher infection rates, more deaths and greater job loss. But many black Americans were not surprised. This is not new. The same dynamic has been going on at times of crisis for decades and generations. As a labor economist and former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor under the Clinton administration, I know that history has shown that black Americans consistently bear the brunt of recessions and natural disasters. Economic history repeating itself Prior to this pandemic, the worst economic downturns in post-World War II America were the 1981-82 recession and the Great Recession that followed the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Duri...
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Who’s at risk of not being counted in the 2020 census: 6 essential reads
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Journalism

Who’s at risk of not being counted in the 2020 census: 6 essential reads

The census aims to count everyone in the U.S. Of course, that’s not so easy. Overall, the 2010 census was accurate, with a net overcount of just 0.01%. Still, some 16 million people were likely omitted from the final count. The data that the Census Bureau gathers is used to make important decisions about congressional apportionment and federal funding. So, if one county is undercounted more than another, that may mean that they are less well represented politically, or that they get less than their fair share of money over the next decade. A few groups are at particular risk of being undercounted. African Americans Demographers first realized that the census was not counting everyone equally in World War II, and that places with large nonwhite populations were being underrepresented. “...
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Coronavirus bailouts will cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars – unlike past corporate rescues that actually made money for the US Treasury
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COVID-19, Journalism

Coronavirus bailouts will cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars – unlike past corporate rescues that actually made money for the US Treasury

The U.S. government has now pledged almost US$3 trillion to save the economy and Americans from the coronavirus recession. Most of that is aimed at individual Americans in the form of additional unemployment insurance or the so-called economic impact checks. About $1.2 trillion – and counting – represent bailouts for American companies, large and small. And more than 60% of that is in the form of grants or other financial assistance that will likely become grants – funds that will not be recovered by taxpayers. The Congressional Budget Office estimated on April 23 that the company-related coronavirus bailouts, excluding the fourth one just signed into law, will ultimately cost more than $400 billion over 10 years. Given that most of the latest bailout, worth $484 billion, will most likel...
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Lethargic global response to COVID-19: How the human brain’s failure to assess abstract threats cost us dearly
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COVID-19, Journalism

Lethargic global response to COVID-19: How the human brain’s failure to assess abstract threats cost us dearly

More U.S. citizens have confirmed COVID-19 infections than the next five most affected countries combined. Yet as recently as mid-March, President Trump downplayed the gravity of the crisis by falsely claiming the coronavirus was nothing more than seasonal flu, or a Chinese hoax, or a deep state plot designed to damage his reelection bid. The current U.S. administration’s mishandling of the coronavirus threat is part of a larger problem in pandemic management. Many government officials, medical experts, scholars and journalists continued to underestimate the dangers of COVID-19, even as the disease upended life in China as early as mid-January. The results of this collective inertia are catastrophic indeed. The U.S., along with Italy, Spain, Iran and the French Alsace, is now the site of...
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Doctors facing grim choice over ventilators told to put patients with disabilities at the back of the line
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, Journalism

Doctors facing grim choice over ventilators told to put patients with disabilities at the back of the line

As cases related to the novel coronavirus continue to strain hospitals, doctors face difficult choices about rationing scarce medical resources like ventilators – choices that will likely determine who lives and who dies. Several states’ policies tell providers to allocate scarce resources to those most likely to benefit. For example, Washington state recently adopted a policy that favors “the survival of young otherwise healthy patients more heavily than that of older, chronically debilitated patients.” Similar new guidelines have been issued in Massachusetts as well. In several other states, existing policies that were developed in anticipation of an emergency – including pandemics – recommend rationing that prioritizes giving ventilators to otherwise healthy people who are most likely...
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