IIMC launches online course for health journalists

The Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), along with the Thomson Reuters Foundation and UNICEF, has launched an online course on critical appraisal skills (CAS) for healthcare journalists which aims to enhance capacities of media professionals to generate factual and non-sensational reports, according to a release today.

The launch coincides with the World Immunization Week, being observed worldwide from April 24 to 30, it added.

The course provides a specialised set of skills and competencies to the journalism students and enables them to research and analyse health-related information for credibility and relevance thereby improving the accuracy in reporting, the IIMS release said, quoting its Director General K G Suresh.

The course is available for entry and mid-level health reporters and aims to enhance the capacities of media representatives to generate factual and non-sensational reports, the release said.

Thomson Reuters Foundation Director (Journalism and Media Programmes) Nicolas Ballet said, With this initiative, we are training Indian journalists to apply the Reuters principles of accuracy and impartiality to their reporting on immunisation and mother and child health.

UNICEF Representative in India Yasmin Ali Haque said, "This course will be an opportunity for health journalists across the country to add a critical dimension of evidence in their reporting and support in disseminating credible messages on the value of vaccines and how immunisation saves the lives of millions of girls and boys.

The free online course is launched in the backdrop of UNICEF's Every Child, Alive' campaign which focuses on reducing newborn mortality, ensuring that every child is alive and healthy in the days, weeks and months after birth, the release said.