EU countries agreed to pre-book several vaccines together. But the (now former) prime minister of Slovakia decided to act when the Western vaccines wouldn’t come fast enough. This cost him his post. Learn what happened on the latest episode of our podcast, produced with help from award-winning Slovak journalist Lukáš Onderčanin. Lukáš and I met on a press trip to Thailand. It’s exciting to collaborate again!
When my colleague Eva and I drafted our project before the pandemic, we thought we would definitely include Italy in our itinerary and talk to parents and doctors about living with widespread vaccine hesitancy, also promoted by certain politicians. It took us a while because we had to take our research online, but I am proud to present this collaborative podcast episode, created together with Are We Europe magazine. Have a listen!
Since my colleague Eva and I started our project on anti-vaccination movements, reading about the topic has often led us to academic and media articles on misinformation or disinformation. The distinction between the two is not always clear, but it is based on intent. Disinformation is defined as intentional efforts to mislead people in order to sow distrust and chaos. And just like the general population was flooded with public health terminology (R number, exponential curve and so on) after the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world, our readers, too are increasingly introduced to the typology of misleading claims on various fact-checking websites, social networks, and the media. Eva and I are working on more podcast episodes to explain these distinctions.
You can find some useful resources from First Draft here and here. It is important to note that misinformation and disinformation make use of real facts, but frame them to guide their audience towards misleading conclusions. In data visualisation, using a truncated Y axis is an example of a manipulation that can lead people to misinterpret correct data. Continue reading
Laura Oliver talked to numerous international reporters to glean suggestions for reporting on vaccines. But our podcast episode is not just for reporters – as we discuss visuals, fact-checks and tone when engaging in a politically charged conversations about vaccines, I think everyone who is having these conversations with their family and friends will find useful tips. Listen and subscribe! Continue reading
Jakub Goda is a social media maverick from Slovakia, and he is very concerned with the damage of misinformation. He has tried his hand in activism on social networks and even infiltrated a misinformation-spreading website to see how it works. As the pandemic rages, Jakub works for Slovakia’s ministry of health, where he tries to preempt misinformation and respond to the most prominent attacks against public health measures. Have a listen, and better yet, subscribe to our podcast! Continue reading
Together with my colleague Eva von Schaper, with the kind support of Journalismfund.eu, we are launching a podcast on the politics and values surrounding public health. Expect discussions on COVID-19, vaccination, masks, political debates on public health measures, data, and more. Please follow us wherever you listen to podcasts!
It’s great that many prominent freelancers are sharing their #FreelancePies – we certainly need to open up the conversation about money. In this post I’m not going to disclose my total income, but I’ll show you what freelancing was like for me since I left my last stable job. I’m doing this to contribute to helping people who aspire for a career in writing to plan realistically. Also, I’m going to show this post to friends and anyone who holds some romanticised impression of freelance journalism. Obviously, my experience doesn’t represent an average freelance journalist in any country. It’s just, well, a slice of the industry.
I interviewed journalists, journalist unions, read the Government Control Office website and a bunch of documents for this article: Independent journalism under increasing threat in Hungary – Equal Times.
It is always interesting to compare events. Last year the Baltic Pride, the annual march for LGBT rights, held in the Baltic capitals on a rotating basis, aroused many discussions in Lithuania, but when it takes place in the other Baltic capitals, we usually only see a photo or two. This year I had a chance to report from a similar demonstration in Budapest. The leading Lithuanian news portal Delfi published my article with photos.