Center for Health Journalism

08/11/2026

David Zahniser, a 2025 Data fellow with the Center for Health Journalism and Los Angeles Times reporter, covers how L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ homelessness team repeatedly returned to nearly two dozen locations, as Bass defended Inside Safe and some neighbors said their streets kept repopulating with encampments.

🔗 Read more at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-08-09/bass-inside-safe-teams-went-to-these-places-but-so-did-homeless

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Mayor Karen Bass' Inside Safe outreach teams went 25 times to a one-mile stretch along the 110 Freeway in South L.A. The area stands as a symbol of the challenges facing the program.

08/07/2026

Fly larvae have been found contaminating detainees' water inside the Adelanto ICE Processing Center.

Ryanne Mena, a 2026 California Health Equity fellow, shares about it in her recent story:

https://www.dailynews.com/2026/08/06/fly-larvae-found-in-detainees-water-sample-from-adelanto-ice-facility-as-contamination-claims-grow

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

This news organization obtained the specimens from a detained person who said they collected them from the shower floors of the Adelanto facility.

08/06/2026

🔗 Read the full story:
https://centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/reporting/beyond-shared-identity-rethinking-what-culturally-competent-therapy-means-south

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

08/04/2026

We're celebrating a milestone: 22 years of the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism. 🎉

We were founded in 2004 as The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, training about 100 California journalists a year. Today, we support thousands of journalists across the country annually, through fellowships, grants, reporting collaboratives, symposia, and webinars.

Our team is packing up our longtime home — the eaved top floor of the more than a century-old Kerckhoff Hall, a Tudor Revival — and going “back to school.” This fall, we are moving into the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism building on campus. Along the way, we've been rediscovering pieces of our history, including copies of ground-breaking stories that changed state and federal law on health equity, in hospitals, schools, workplaces, and justice systems. We also found early issues of Boyle Heights Beat, our youth-led community news project with La Opinión.

In the year ahead in our new space, we are as committed as ever to nurture reporting that galvanizes communities and spurs the dismantling of structural barriers to health and well-being.

Will you help us start this next chapter strong? Give $22 for 22 more years: bit.ly/SupportCHJ or text "CHJ" to 41444

07/31/2026

👏 The Center for Health Journalism is delighted to announce the selection of 10 talented journalists who will participate in our 2026 Impact Fund for Reporting on Equity in Health and Health Care.

👉 Swipe to meet the grantees:

Lee Hawkins, freelance

Makenzie Huber, South Dakota Searchlight

Hannah Kaufman, The Morning Sentinel

Beatriz Limón, Arizona Luminaria

Alexandra Martinez, Prism

McKenna Oxenden, Straight Arrow News

Manny Ramos, Block Club Chicago

Andrea Richards, INDY Week and The Assembly

Randi Richardson, Capital B News

Rachel Wachman, Concord Monitor

Over the next five months, the grantees will explore topics including obstacles to health care in rural communities, the difficulties of getting services for children with disabilities, threats facing safety-net hospitals, and more.

🔗 Learn more at bit.ly/2026ImpactGrantees

✔️ Follow the conversation at

This grant is made possible thanks to the generous support of The Commonwealth Fund.

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

07/29/2026

Today’s webinar at 11:30am PDT on immigration reporting will make you rethink your coverage.

🔗 Register now: bit.ly/ImmigrationReporting

Join us for a thought-provoking conversation with Rinku Sen, executive director of Narrative Initiative, and Michelle Levander, Center for Health Journalism's founding director, about the ways language used in immigration reporting reflects broader narratives and political agendas. If you report or edit immigration coverage, this session is especially for you.

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

07/27/2026

“Deny entry to all female foreigners.”
"Require sterilization of all foreign visitors prior to entry.”
“Are we right in saying that ‘these dogs and cats in Ohio are celebrating this afternoon?’”

These were just a few of the social media responses to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision on birthright citizenship, a ruling that reaffirmed the status quo of issuing citizenship for babies born in the U.S. The comments are just the latest chapter in a long history of anti-immigration sentiment. Caricatures of immigrants, racist language and exclusionary laws can be traced back to the earliest days of the Republic.

How can reporters navigate this fraught environment in their coverage? To launch a conversation, we've invited Rinku Sen, a political strategist and expert on changing narratives, to join Center for Health Journalism Director Michelle Levander to discuss the “Drop the I-Word” campaign that ultimately changed the policies of major newsrooms around the country about their use of the word "illegal."

Republican pollster Frank Luntz, pushed conservatives to use the phrase “illegal immigrant” over more neutral terms. Levander and Sen, now the executive director of the Narrative Initiative, will discuss the language and narrative frames used in immigration reporting since then, and crucial things to keep in mind when covering these stories.

Register now to be part of this thought-provoking discussion: bit.ly/ImmigrationReporting

The Stories We Tell: The Politics of Stigma and the Language of Immigration Reporting
🗓️ Wednesday, July 29, 11:30am

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

07/23/2026

In our upcoming, free webinar, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗪𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗹: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗺𝗮 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗺𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴, we talk with Rinku Sen, executive director of the Narrative Initiative, who was a central figure in the “Drop the I-Word Campaign,” which persuaded major media outlets to stop routinely using the word “illegal” when referring to immigrants.

Explore how immigration language in reporting has been politically weaponized. Join the discussion and find out what’s at stake for the health and well-being of immigrant families and communities.

⏰ Wednesday, July 29, 11:30am–12:30pm PDT
🎤 Featuring executive director Rinku Sen in conversation with founding director
🔗 Register here: bit.ly/ImmigrationReporting

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

07/17/2026

💭 Why does language around immigration matter?

Join the conversation in our next webinar:

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗪𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗹: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗺𝗮 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗺𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴
⏰ Wednesday, July 29, 2026, 11:30am - 12:30pm PDT
🎤 Featuring Narrative Initiative executive director Rinku Sen in conversation with Center for Health Journalism founding director Michelle Levander

🔗 Visit bit.ly/ImmigrationReporting to register

Explore how immigration language has been politically weaponized and what’s at stake for immigrant families and communities. Learn:

• The history of the current terms in use when talking about immigrants
• How these terms have become politically weaponized
• What’s at stake for the health and well-being of immigrant families and communities

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

07/14/2026

HAPPENING SOON! Please join us for:

𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁: 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆
⏰ Tuesday, July 14, 2026, 10 - 11am PDT
📖 Featuring author & journalist Lee Hawkins

🔗 Visit bit.ly/HistoryReportingStrategies to register and learn more.