If you’re looking for perspective in your reporting connected with the coronavirus story, it might help to turn to the extensive library of non-fiction books offering insight into disease and epidemics. Our own Bob Wyss offers a helping hand, with a select list of the most useful texts. Plus, links to resource lists for many more, in the latest BookShelf.
The economic fallout from COVID-19 is severely damaging the news business, but may also point to transformative new ways of doing journalism, writes columnist Joseph A. Davis in the latest WatchDog. Meanwhile, the coronavirus-climate connection shows the importance of good, scientifically sound journalism. And are federal agencies leaning on COVID-19 to slow FOIA actions?
Can “phoning it in” actually be sound advice for journalists? It can — in the current coronavirus crisis — writes Cynthia Barnett, environmental journalist-in-residence at the University of Florida. In a special EJ Academy, she looks at how to teach young reporters to gather immersive reporting from afar.
"An examination reveals the president was warned about the potential for a pandemic but that internal divisions, lack of planning and his faith in his own instincts led to a halting response."
"This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that soybean farmers in 25 states are now able to spray a pesticide that the agency has determined is likely to cause cancer and drift hundreds of feet from where it is applied."
"After the fossil fuel industry spent hundreds of millions of dollars undermining climate science, it’s easy to see how epidemiology came next."
"The Environmental Protection Agency warned Friday that disinfectants and sanitizers falsely claiming to protect against the coronavirus are flooding the market and threatened legal action against retailers that sell unregistered products."
"A week after EPA issued a controversial enforcement policy, the agency declined to reveal how many companies sought waivers of noncompliance due to the novel coronavirus pandemic."
The coronavirus pandemic has pushed climate change out of the headlines. But the two stories have much in common if journalists look beneath the surface. That was the consensus of expert panelists at an April 2 webinar organized by the Society of Environmental Journalists, who also had suggestions on how to cover both beats better. Read more, or check out video or audio.
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