Reporting on COVID-19

If things weren't pressured enough in journalism right now, the new global pandemic is just going to make it worse. Many journalists are going to be called on to report on and around this virus, simply because both its own impact, and the impact of the measures to delay its spread, will be felt in every part of life.

On top of that, we have misinformation merchants and politicians spinning lines that simply aren't true, coupled with well-meaning but harmful work by non-experts who have read a few papers and convinced themselves that they're epidemiologists. (I have vaccinated myself against this by marrying a woman with a PhD in immunology, who has no compunction about telling me when I'm talking about things I don't understand…)

Frankly, nobody needs a media analyst and journalism blogger's hot take on all this, do they?

In an attempt to make myself as useful as I can, I'm compiling a page of resources that will be useful to non-specialist reporters trying to get their heads around the current, fast-moving situation - and I'm committing myself to keeping it updated as much as I can.

Here it is:

Reporting on COVID-19 and the novel coronavirus: resources for journalists

The very nature of the current novel coronavirus crisis means that a lot ofjournalists who have no speciality in health, epidemiology, virology orimmunology are going to be called on to report on and around the subject. Butit’s changing fast, and lot is unknown — and getting it wrong can have ser…

One Man & His BlogAdam Tinworth

Thanks to everyone who has contributed already, and I'm happy to get further suggestions of useful resources to add. Just drop me a line.