Yearn to Learn?

Medill School of Journalism holds free journalism workshop

The age of internet and remote learning has made it that much easier to get connected to other people in the field and learn from them. This online workshop being put on by Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern is all about improving and honing your skills and finding out what college journalism is like — all from the comfort of your own computer.

This fall the two free workshops they are offering are “How to be a better sports journalist and improve your section in four easy slides” by Melissa Issacson, a Medill lecturer; and “From Emmett Till to George Floyd: Racial Reckoning, Media Responsibility” by Christopher Benson, a Medill associate professor.

All you have to do to watch them is register for free. I promise it’s that easy!

Here’s what you can do:

• Take this opportunity to bond with your class or fellow journalists, because a team that hangs together, stays together. (That’s how the saying goes right?) Whether it be pulling it up for the class one day or everyone watching it at home and meeting back to discuss, this is a great workshop for an entire newsroom to watch. The conversations surrounding these workshops may spark story ideas or ways to improve the newsroom.

Below is a previous stream put on by Medill from a student panel to discuss their own journalistic experiences.

Country Women Everywhere

Breaking the glass ceiling of rural America

While it may seem as though rural America is comprised mostly of white men, the reality is that women and people of color are a central component to rural communities. Did you know that more than 1/5 of Native Americans live in rural America? That’s more than double the share of the white, non-Hispanic population living in these areas.

In order to help reinforce the importance of women and people of color in these regions, women from across rural America will gather online this month at Rural Women Everywhere, a two-day virtual conference presented by the Rural Assembly.

Scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 19-20, the free conference will feature keynote speaker Diane Wilson, an award-winning memoirist and novelist. The event will also feature performances from rural and Native musicians and poets, and discussions on topics such as climate resilience, rural allyship with the LGBTQ+ community, and democracy.

Here’s what you can do:

Not only is this another opportunity for your newsroom to gain some knowledge from an array of experts, but this topic presents and important story to tell. Cities in rural and urban America need to see the full picture.

• Are you from rural America? Tell the story of your own town and the people that live there. Why do some people prefer to live in the calm of the country rather than the hustle and bustle of the city? What are some problems facing your community that urban and even suburban areas wouldn’t think of?
• Are you from an urban area? Do some research about issues that rural areas face and dig into that story. Whether it be healthcare, broadband, or transportation, pick a topic and make some phone calls to find out what problems are caused by and how the community feels they could be fixed.
• Some things to think about:
• Don’t oversimplify and mischaracterize the political, social, and cultural nature of rural areas.
• Try to get stories from people who actually live in these areas and actually get to know them.
• Don’t approach the story with preconceived notions or stereotypes.

The moral in morale

Low morale in hospitals at an all-time low

Nineteen months into the pandemic and we continue to see hospitals reaching, and re-reaching, capacity. Nurses across the country maintain their all-hands on deck attitudes, but morale has plummeted to an all-time low.

Research done at University of California Irvine shows that nearly 13 percent of surveyed healthcare workers said they left a position because of “moral distress” during the pandemic and 15 percent reported suicidal thoughts in the prior month.

Nurses are leaving the profession quickly and in significant numbers.

Here’s what you can do:

What does the healthcare shortage look like in your area? A lack of resources, workers, and future providers all contribute to the problem. There’s no one reason, but what have clinics and hospitals near you done to combat low morale and retention?

Some professionals say effective communication, respect, and empathy help to boost staff morale, but what are you supposed to do when the pandemic has hit everyone so hard and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.

Talk to local healthcare professionals to hear their story, whether they have been at the job for three months or three decades, they have an important view on the pandemic and its effects. What has been weighing them down the most and what do they hope to find in the future? Can any of them see a light at the end of the tunnel?

The road to hospital recovery will be a long one, but for now we can make sure to tell their stories.