Part 2: Ethics and Reporting Practices for COVID-19

Crowdsourced data, trauma-informed reporting, and undercovered stories

This week’s roundup and tips will focus on attempts by civic tech and individuals to help collect data and crowdsource information, as well as resources for trauma-informed reporting. I’ve also included a list of undercovered stories around the fallout of COVID-19 for editors, below. Read the other roundups here and here.

In the context of this pandemic and accompanying economic crisis, we need data, information from whistleblowers, and sensitive reporting that continues to provide resources and essential information to citizens.

Alexis Madrigal writes for The Atlantic, “People trust data. Numbers seem real. Charts have charismatic power. People believe what can be quantified. But data do not always accurately reflect the state of the world. Or as one scholar put it in a book title: ‘Raw Data’ Is an Oxymoron.”

A lack of testing has created a dearth of data. In the absence of proper coordination from the federal government, independent researchers, academics, and journalists have been left to create databases themselves. The Covid Tracking Project is one such database that journalists can use to find accurate data about the spread of the virus. The MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at the World Health Organization is another reliable source of information about global disease modeling.

Journalism has to connect the dots and explain causality. Headlines like, “Decade of Job Growth Comes to an End, Undone by a Pandemic” are generous, and underplay the way this crisis has been produced by poor management decisions and judgement from the federal government.

Media organizations should pivot, and stories above the digital fold should focus first on what citizens need to know in their day-to-day lives. Highlight resources — both medical and financial, and then address some of the externalities of this crisis. For example, a potential increase in domestic violence is a secondary public health consequence of the quarantine, and news organizations would be doing a public service by covering this issue and offering resources to those impacted. (The French government, by comparison, has instituted a code word for those dealing with domestic violence to be used in pharmacies, and is housing these individuals in hotels).

When journalists are writing stories on media manipulation, they should focus on the people impacted, instead of media manipulators. Patterns of media manipulation continue to happen in new ways and it is in the public interest to understand these attempts and the way their digital lives may be impacted.

The New York Times recently added a section titled “Answers to Your Frequently Asked Questions.” Every digital publication should have this sort of page, and these resources need to be far more robust, and localized.

Trauma-informed tip sheets:

• How Journalists Can Deal With Trauma While Reporting on COVID-19—Global Investigative Journalism Network
• How Journalists Can Fight Stress from Covering the Coronavirus — Poynter
• Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma has ample resources for vicarious trauma.

Underreported stories:

• In recent years, women of color and women have told horrifying stories of neglect and institutional bias in health care settings. Some women have expressed concerns that they will not be heard and that their on-going invisibility will be exacerbated in the context of seeking care during the pandemic. Journalists should pay special attention to the needs of those already feeling vulnerable in their access to care.
• Disparities in power: Management versus clinicians in hospital systems. (more on this below.)
• Stifling speech and subsequent firing of medical professionals: Healthcare workers need tips and encouragement to speak to the media amidst threats of job loss and pressures to stay silent about their needs, experiences, and frustrations. This includes making tutorials on digital security easily available, and offering instructions on how to safely pass along documents to media organization or civil liberties groups. Healthcare workers should also be provided a way to gain access to journalists and editors.
• Domestic violence while in quarantine: Cover this issue and feature links to resources and hotlines for those who are vulnerable.
• Iran sanctions: Iranians are suffering from a dearth of medical supplies as a result of U.S. sanctions implemented by the Trump administration. The unmitigated spread of COVID-19 anywhere in the world is a risk to all global citizens, and news organizations should prioritize this story, along with any other impediments to access to care or supplies caused by geopolitical rivalries and foreign policy.
• News organizations should address issues of access to reliable information by non-English speakers. Many immigrant communities rely on independent newspapers, sometimes referred to as “ethnic press.” Creative solutions could include translating Frequently Asked Questions sections into different languages, and linking back to these smaller publications.
• Alternative medicine & cross cultural approaches to medicine: In mid-March, CNN reported the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Wuhan in response to the absence of an antiviral drug that was efficacious, according to the scientific norms of traditional western medicine. Misinformation about home remedies and alternative medicine abounds, and is being disseminated by individuals and organizations on social media platforms. It is tricky for journalists to assess the efficacy of these treatments, but acknowledging the use of these alternative approaches and the ambiguity around their relevance might bolster trust in media and science. This is a very sensitive area that many journalists are not well-equipped to address, and we will be following up with a more detailed post about the epistemology of science and medicine, and gaps in data and knowledge.
• Undocumented citizens: It is crucial for news organizations to highlight the challenges faced by those who are undocumented, including whether it is safe for people to seek medical care in various parts of the country. Stories should not just address the issue of health insurance, but also financial issues, and access to information.
• Surveillance and health: News organizations should speak to experts, including legal academics, about genuine concerns, helping citizens have clarity about their rights. Many civil liberties lawyers and privacy advocates are concerned about the possible abridgement of rights — this is also the topic of a salient conspiracy theory / misinformation that is circulating widely on social platforms.
• The New York Times has created an obituary page specifically for those who have passed away from COVID-19 related causes. The headlines of these pieces tend to identify individuals by their professional accomplishments. Those who are unemployed, stay-at-home moms, freelancers, and those who have lived robust lives of personal connection and contributions that can’t be categorized solely by professional accomplishments, or those who have lived difficult lives, and deserve to be seen nonetheless, should also be included in this section.
• Given a vast shortage of supplies, news organizations — both local and national — should link to tutorials on how to make masks and PPE.
• Hold the administration accountable. Do not repeat misinformation in a headline.

We need more investigative journalism on:

• The state of our supply chain: We keep hearing, “the supply chain remains strong.” Citizens are not sure, and the federal government’s inadequate response to the pandemic does not instill confidence in long-term access to supplies. We need more robust, investigative reporting about the state of the supply chain, so that citizens and state governments can prepare adequately, or be reassured appropriately.
• Information from the CDC, about the virus, recommendations about public policy decisions, and transparency about interactions between CDC employees and the White House. The Knight Institute has sued the CDC for records and is asking CDC employees to come forward if they have been silenced.
• Attempts to record university professors as they teach online classes, and related zoom bombing. The Wall Street Journal offers a guide to avoid zoom bombing.
• Inner machinations at various federal agencies that should be cooperating and leading the national COVID-19 response.
• More transparency into the decisions executives and management at large hospital systems are making about the division of supplies to different hospitals within their network — comparing access to supplies and health care workers at hospitals that cater to different demographics and neighborhoods within large cities. A story in The New York Post about the Mount Sinai Medical System led to questions about why Elmhurst Hospital, part of the Sinai system, has become the epicenter of COVID-19 in New York, while Manhattan-based Sinai hospitals are not facing the same severity of shortages. These are questions that will replicate in hospital systems across America, especially as we near the peak and supply shortages lead to difficult decisions about distribution.
• Timelines and charts tracing our information on the virus, its transmission, and the way the disease presents in patients are very useful to bolster public confidence in scientific facts. A chart on what we know for sure, what is still in process, what has been debunked, delicately made, would be useful for citizens.

Smitha Khorana is the Newsroom Outreach Lead at Data & Society. She’s written for The Guardian, The Intercept, Columbia Journalism Review, and co-edited a book on the Snowden leaks and the surveillance state.

Suggestions, comments, or noticed a resource we missed? E-mail smitha@datasociety.net.