Center for Health Journalism

01/09/2026

Webinar alert: How Reporters Can Get Ahead of Misinformation
Wed., January 21, 10–11am PST
Register: https://bit.ly/CounteringMisinformation

These are not ordinary times. The volume of misinformation, misleading claims and biased language entering the national conversation has reached a fever pitch. The problem is compounded by today’s rapid news cycle, in which accuracy and context can’t wait. To meet this challenge, journalists increasingly need to fact-check and contextualize claims in real time — whether during live hearings or breaking news events.

In this USC Center for Health Journalism webinar, we’ll share some practical strategies for anticipating misinformation and countering harmful tropes without slowing down your coverage. For instance, savvy reporters might develop a well of “publish ready” copy they can plug into their stories that follows a questionable claim with the best available evidence.

Attendees will also learn how to recognize coded language and dehumanizing or racist tropes in the moment — and how to journalistically respond in a politically charged environment. We’ll share tools, workflows and ethical considerations to help you deliver speed and rigor on crucial health equity coverage under pressure.

Our featured speaker, Kat Stafford, is the global race and justice editor for Reuters, where she leads coverage of race, identity and social justice across the world.

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism University of Southern California

In this webinar, we’ll share some practical strategies for anticipating misinformation and countering harmful tropes without slowing down your coverage.

01/07/2026

The USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism is excited to announce the selection of five student journalists who will participate in our inaugural Domestic Violence Student Impact Reporting Fund.

Please welcome: Danielle Hughes, Mallika Seshadri, Erika Taylor, Rosaura Simone and Kendall Washington

Domestic violence affects more than 10 million Americans each year — and in California, more than half of families have been touched by domestic violence. Yet it is often treated as a criminal or private matter rather than a public health epidemic. Journalism can play a critical role in bringing about change and greater awareness.

This new program will provide student journalists with a roadmap for reporting about domestic violence with nuance and sensitivity. Student grantees will receive professional mentoring during the 2026 academic year, along with reporting grants and a regular curriculum and peer-learning to support ambitious explanatory and investigative reporting about domestic violence.

🔗 Learn more about the program at bit.ly/DVReportingFundStudentGrantees

Thank you to Blue Shield of California Foundation for supporting this fellowship.

01/06/2026

⏳ Deadline approaching! Be part of our next cohort and apply for our 2026 California Health Equity Fellowship by January 14, 2026.

The Center for Health Journalism's California Health Equity Fellowship is designed to support reporters pursuing ambitious projects on overlooked health and health equity issues. You decide what stories need to be told in your community to improve health outcomes and we work to support you.

Fellows join us for a few days of rigorous in-person training on the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles, where they learn from leading health experts, policy analysts, top journalists in the field, and from each other. This is followed by ongoing mentoring and virtual meetings to help carry your reporting project across the finish line.

⏰ Application deadline: January 14, 2026
🗓️ In-person training: March 16–19, 2026
💸 Grants: $2,000–$10,000

Tell the health stories your community needs.

👉 To learn more and apply, tap the link in our bio or visit bit.ly/2026CAFellowshipInfo

Thank you to Blue Shield of California Foundation, The California Endowment and The California Wellness Foundation for supporting this fellowship.

Slide 1: Fellows, Senior Fellows and Center for Health Journalism staff at the 2025 California Health Equity Fellowship Week in March at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in Los Angeles.

12/30/2025

Just 2 days left to double your impact! Donations to the Center for Health Journalism will be matched through Dec. 31.

Your support makes in-depth reporting like Phi Do's possible. Phi spent months examining the complex challenges Thai residents in Los Angeles County face when accessing mental health care. Her reporting was supported by our 2025 Impact Fund for Reporting on Health Equity and Health Systems and an engagement grant.

Combining data with community engagement, Phi’s stories explored how well mental health programs met the unique cultural needs of the Thai community. By facilitating a number of community discussions, they also reported on how residents felt services for immigrants could be improved.

Read her stories: centerforhealthjournalism.org/phi-do

Phi credits the Center’s support and mentorship for making it possible to host a variety of community engagement events: from facilitating virtual and in-person listening sessions to tabling at the first Thai Buddhist temple established in the country.

“The grant enabled me to hire interpreters and translators for these events and throughout my reporting process,” Phi shared, “ensuring that community members had access to vital information and could share their stories in the language they preferred.”

Support next year’s fellows and grantees: text “CHJ” to 41444 or visit bit.ly/GivetoCHJ to have your donation matched through Dec. 31.

Slide 1: Phi Do speaking with a community member at the Wat Thai Temple in North Hollywood in August.

Slide 2: Phi Do (bottom right) and her interpreter Lena Deesomlert (bottom left) speaking with medical massage therapist Arthur Wongphan (top left) and neuromuscular therapist Jesse Anoraj (top right).

Slide 3: “Six mental healthcare recommendations for and by L.A.’s Thai community” by Phi Do for the LA Times

Slide 4: “‘They come in with their silence’: How stigma and limited access to mental healthcare affect L.A.’s Thai community” by Phi Do for the LA Times

Slide 5: “Thai massage therapists find community and mental health support in self-defense classes” by Phi Do for the LA Times

12/29/2025

➡️ Swipe to meet our 2025 Data Fellows! (part 1)

Your support enables us to continue equipping reporters with the tools they need to pursue ambitious, impactful journalism through our fellowships and grants, including our popular Data Fellowship.

During our fall 2025 Data Fellowship Week in Los Angeles, we connected with some of the Fellows to hear about their experiences in the program so far, the tools and skills they’re most excited to learn, and what they hope to achieve by the end of their fellowship.

For the first part of this two-part series, we met up with:

Chris Burrell, WGBH Boston

Rebecca Cadenhead, MLK50

Drew Hawkins, Gulf States Newsroom

Will Katcher, MassLive

Josephine Lee, Texas Observer

Rachel Livinal, KVPR

Help fund the next cohort of fellows today. Text "CHJ" to 41444 or visit bit.ly/GivetoCHJ. All donations by 12/31 will be matched, doubling your impact!

12/17/2025

When reporter Ed Mahon joined the USC Center for Health Journalism’s Data Fellowship, he used data and engagement support to uncover how Pennsylvania’s opioid settlement dollars were being allocated and who held the power to decide.

The project (centerforhealthjournalism.org/ed-mahon) led to a first-of-its-kind public database, an interactive tool that lets users step into the role of decision-maker, and in-depth coverage cited by families, advocates, and even a former member of Congress.

Ed was so convinced of the value and impact of this work that he became a donor himself. If you or your organization believe in rigorous, community-centered health reporting, we invite you to join Ed in supporting this mission.

Donate today at bit.ly/GivetoCHJ or text "CHJ" to 41444. Gifts will be matched through 12/31.

Invest in the USC Center for Health Journalism today and help power the next investigation that informs policy, strengthens communities, and saves lives.

12/15/2025

Seven months pregnant, Lily Wang crossed the rugged mountains along the U.S.–Mexico border with her husband to seek asylum. Now, caring for two young children, she often feels exhausted and alone.

Ziwei Liu (pictured), a 2025 Impact Fund for Reporting on Health Equity and Health Systems Grantee, reported on the many Chinese immigrant mothers in Southern California like Wang. They endure exhausting journeys to the U.S., only to face new challenges such as sleepless nights with newborns, breastfeeding struggles, and deep loneliness without nearby family support. Read about them at bit.ly/ZiweiLiuStories

Liu writes for World Journal 世界日報, the largest Chinese-language daily newspaper in the U.S., and is among the nearly 100 reporters the Center for Health Journalism supported this year.

Fund more in-depth reporting and support more stories like Ziwei Liu’s! Donate by 12/31 and your gift up to $1,000 will be doubled, thanks to NewsMatch.

Slide 1: Ziwei Liu in 2023 at the U.S.–Mexico border in San Diego, where she interviewed undocumented Chinese immigrants shortly after they crossed the border. (Photo courtesy of Ziwei Liu)

Slide 3: “After the First Cry: Chinese Mothers Left to Navigate the Long March Alone” by Ziwei Liu for World Journal

Slide 4: “The Gaps in Care: What SoCal Chinese Mothers Reveal About a System Still Learning to Listen” by Ziwei Liu for World Journal

12/05/2025

Fund journalism that changes lives!

This year, the Center for Health Journalism provided training and support to nearly 100 journalists through our grants and fellowship programs.

Altogether, these journalists produced nearly 300 stories in 2025. Some of the topics covered include the mental health toll of deportation scares on children in immigrant families, the harmful effects of the affordable housing crisis on families, transportation insecurity as a driver of health inequity, and more.

⬅️ Swipe through to see more stories from this year. Can we count on your help to power more health reporting stories like these?

🔗 Visit bit.ly/GivetoCHJ to donate or text "CHJ" to 41444 to support the Center for Health Journalism.

Thanks to NewsMatch, donations up to $1,000 will be matched, doubling your support for journalism that can make a difference, expose inequity, and highlight issues faced by underserved communities.

Slide 2: “‘We see a lot of helplessness’: At a Detroit clinic, transportation barriers put chronic disease, injured patients at risk” by Eleanore Catolico for Planet Detroit

Slide 3: “Growing up in fear: Immigration enforcement fuels mental health crisis among children of immigrants” by Jennifer Chowdhury for Prism

Slide 4: “For Sikhs In ICE Detention Centers, Faith Represents Hope” by Tanay Gokhale for India Currents Magazine

Slide 5: “Sacramento’s Concrete Roses” by Russell Stiger for The Sacramento Observer

Slide 6: “An ‘Áo Dài’ of Her Own: One Trans Woman's Path to Family Acceptance” by Nhien Tra Nguyen for Nguoi Viet Daily News

12/03/2025

ICYMI: What will AI mean for health equity? Read some insights below by expert panelists who led yesterday’s webinar and watch the recording here bit.ly/InfoEquityAgeofAI

Yesterday’s webinar featured expert panelists Dr. Joseph R. Betancourt, President of The Commonwealth Fund; Dr. Tina Hernandez-Boussard, professor of medicine at Stanford University and Katie Palmer, health tech correspondent at STAT.

Dr. Betancourt said: When we are talking about health equity, fundamentally what we're saying is we aspire to high-quality healthcare for everyone. And in doing so, we should make sure that our systems, our providers, our technology are geared to do just that.

Dr. Hernandez-Boussard said: We need to ask ourselves, is there bias in the underlying clinical data, clinical information, that's being accumulated? The first piece of the AI lifecycle is the data origination, and bias can be embedded in that original data. So then when we select that data and take it to the next step of the AI lifecycle, that bias is already there.

Reporter Katie Palmer said: Artificial intelligence is deployed at almost every healthcare practice in some form. You just kind of have to ask. Patients aren't always aware when AI is impacting their care.

We are on the cusp of what promises to be a tech-driven revolution in medicine. Join us for a forward-looking and thought-provoking conversation about keeping equity front and center in an era of rapid technological advances.

12/02/2025

Support us and give a gift today!

Since the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism was founded in 2004, we’ve made it our mission to empower and equip journalists to tell in-depth stories that improve the health and well-being of families and communities.

This year, we supported nearly 300 stories. Swipe through to see some of them. With your help, we can continue to expand our important work and support more ambitious health reporting stories like these.

𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵, 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗴𝗶𝗳𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿, 𝘂𝗽 𝘁𝗼 $𝟭,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗮𝗹, 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗗𝗲𝗰. 𝟯𝟭, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱. Your donations go twice as far.

🔗 Visit bit.ly/GivetoCHJ to donate or text "CHJ" to 41444 to support the Center for Health Journalism.

Slide 2: “Three-generation West Side family fights to overcome Chicago’s vast life expectancy gap” by Kristen Schorsch for WBEZ Chicago and the Chicago Sun-Times
Slide 3: “Long hours, tough calls for crews at rural Missouri EMS stations” by Susan Szuch for the Springfield News-Leader
Slide 4: “How stigma and limited access to mental healthcare affect L.A.’s Thai community” from a 4-part series on Thai mental health by Phi Do for the Los Angeles Times
Slide 5: “The FDA has warned against this ‘natural remedy’ for joint pain. San Francisco immigrants still trust it” by Mariana Duval, published by El Tecolote and The Guardian
Slide 6: “Wiped Out: Student Absenteeism in New Jersey” by Mary Ann Koruth for The Record

08/11/2025

⏳ Last call! Tomorrow is the last day to apply to our Data Fellowship!

If you’ve been thinking about applying, now’s the time! Our Data Fellowship application closes tomorrow, August 12. This is your opportunity to join a cohort of innovators, gain access to mentorship, and develop the skills and network you need to bring bold ideas to life.

The fellowship offers journalists a stipend to defray reporting costs and five months of training in data reporting.

Don’t let the deadline pass you by! Apply today 🔗 👉 bit.ly/2025DataFellowship