Baltimore Sun seeks freelancer to cover women's health

The Baltimore Sun, a 232,000-circulation daily newspaper, seeks an experienced freelance journalist to lead a new website focused on women's health.

"A strong command of the English language, a background in blogging and online community moderation, and a history of working with freelancers are key," the ad states.

Apply online.

2-week health journalism fellowship for young TV journalist

Ivanhoe Broadcast News, a syndicated television news-gathering organization covering medical and science breakthroughs, is offering a 2-week fellowship for an early-to-mid career television journalist. Applicants must be a working reporter or producer at a television statio with less than 10 years experience. The fellow will travel to the Ivanhoe headquarters to focus on health and medical reporting.

The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation is co-sponsoring the fellowship, which will include a stipend and an expenses paid trip to RTNDA's annual international conference in Las Vegas, April 19-22, 2009, and a year's membership to RTNDA. Applications are available at RTNDA.org and are due February 1, 2009.

Paid health journalism internship

Ivanhoe Broadcast News, a syndicated television news-gathering organization covering medical and science breakthroughs, is offering a post-graduate internship for a recent journalism graduate. The three-month internship will provide professional training in health reporting at Ivanhoe headquarters in Orlando, Florida, in the summer of 2009.

The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation is co-sponsoring the internship. The internship will include a stipend and an expenses paid trip to RTNDA's annual international conference in Las Vegas, April 19-22, 2009, and a year's membership to RTNDA. Applications are available at RTNDA.org and are due February 1, 2009.

Paid health journalism internships

Paid health journalism internships are available this summer for young journalists at broadcast stations.

But you'll need to hurry and apply, because January 8th is the deadline for the Kaiser Media Internships in Health Reporting.

The 12-week program provides an initial week-long briefing on health issues and health reporting in Washington, D.C. Interns are then based for ten weeks at their radio or TV station, where they report on health issues. The program ends with a 3-day meeting in Boston to hear critiques from senior journalists and to go on final site visits. The aim is to provide young journalists or journalism college graduates with an in-depth introduction to and practical experience on the specialist health beat, with a particular focus on diverse and immigrant communities.

Interns are paid a minimum of $550 per week. In addition, traveling and accommodations are covered for the D.C. and Boston trips.

New week-long health journalism fellowship

A new fellowship program will enable 10 journalists to spend a week studying a variety of public health issues at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in early 2009.

“While not specifically for young journalists, they would certainly benefit from it - a week at the CDC learning about public health and meeting new sources,” e-mails Pia Christensen of the Association of Health Care Journalists, which is co-sponsoring the program along with the CDC.

The AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellowships “will expose the selected journalists to sessions on epidemiology, global disease prevention efforts, pandemic flu preparedness, climate change, vaccine safety, obesity, autism and more,” according to organizers. “Fellows will tour the CDC director's National Emergency Operations Center, meet new sources on policy and research and learn how to tap the agency's abundant resources to produce better stories.”

The fellowships are open to professional journalists working in the United States and provides for travel, lodging and meals. The training will take place Feb. 8-13, 2009 at CDC's Atlanta and Chamblee campuses. Fellowship applications can be completed at www.healthjournalism.org/cdcfellowship and are being accepted until Dec. 29. Earlier applications are encouraged.

-Mark Grabowski

New health news service hiring journalists

If you're looking for a reporting job covering health and medicine, you might want to send a resume to Kaiser Family Foundation, which is launching a news service covering health policy.

"Over the next several months, a team of full-time journalists will be hired and top freelance journalists will be recruited to write stories and series for distribution" through Kaiser Health News, according to the news release.

The news service will be headquartered in Washington, D.C., and overseen by top journalists from the Wall Street Journal and Congressional Quarterly.

All news content will be available for free on a new website, www.kaiserhealthnews.org, expected to go live in early 2009. KHN will also partner with news organizations to jointly produce and publish articles, and will provide free content for syndication to news organizations in the U.S. and around the world.

"The goal of the new effort is to provide in-depth coverage and news at a time when cash-strapped news organizations are being forced to scale back their efforts in this crucial area," the news release says.

-Mark Grabowski

2-month journalism fellowship on science & religion

Applications are currently being accepted for a two-month paid journalism fellowship that focuses on science and religion issues.

The 2009 Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellowships in Science and Religion enables 10 print, broadcast or online journalists to pursue an intensive two-month course of study at the University of Cambridge featuring eminent, well known authorities in the field. Fellows are paid a stipend in addition to travel expenses to Cambridge.

"The fellowship, now in its fifth year, seeks to promote a deeper understanding and a more informed public discussion of the interface of science and religion,"according to organizers. "Potential areas of study include Islam and science, neuroscience, cosmology, quantum uncertainty, multiverses, the New Atheism and spirituality and health."

The awards are open to all journalists with a minimum of three years’ experience, though priority will be given to mid-career and senior journalists. Application deadline is Monday, December 15, 2008.

Medical evidence boot camp for journalists

To help journalists who cover health and medicine, MIT’s Knight Science Journalism Fellowships program will offer an intensive course on how to evaluate medical evidence, Dec. 1-5.

"Medical researchers from MIT, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, the NIH, the FDA and other institutions will teach the course. They’ll explain how clinical trials are designed and carried out and why some kinds of studies are more credible than others. We’ll explore the politics and ethics of how new drugs are tested, often by the companies that stand to profit from them."

The 12 journalists selected will receive $500 for travel expenses to Cambridge, a hotel room and meals. Applicants must have at least five years experience. Apply by September 15.

Free health journalism seminars

USC is seeking applications for its upcoming all-expenses-paid seminars in health journalism. The four day "California Health Journalism Fellowship" programs, held by the university's Annenberg School for Communication in Los Angeles, are "open to all professional print, broadcast and online journalists with a passion for health news, not just reporters on the health beat."

Session 1, from July 31-Aug. 3, will focus on investigating hospitals and nursing homes, understanding medical statistics and medical studies, narrative story telling techniques and more.

Session 2, from Oct. 23-26, will explore the latest thinking about how neighborhood life, work conditions, social inequities, race and education influence health. It will also discuss digital story telling.

The deadline to apply is June 27. For more info, contact (213) 437-4419 or calendow (at) usc.edu.