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| Volume 49, Number 3, Fall 2000 |
KNIGHT FOUNDATION AWARDS $1.1 MILLION FOR BOSTON U SCI/MED JOURNALISM CENTERThe John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded $1,151,700 to Boston University to establish an international science and medical journalism center to strengthen news coverage of science, medicine, and public health. The center will build on the College of Communication's Graduate Science Journalism Program, which is directed by NASW members Ellen Ruppel Shell and Douglas Starr. Ruppel Shell, author of A Child's Place: A Year in the Life of a Day Care Center and a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, is currently writing a book about the science of obesity. Starr is the author of Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce, a three-century history of how human blood became a global commodity, which won the top nonfiction science award in last year's Los Angeles Times Book Prize. The Knight funds, which will be appropriated over three years, will be used to train students and practicing journalists to recognize, investigate, and explain scientific, public health, and medical issues. The aim is to improve the quality of coverage in print, broadcast, and online news organizations. "The need for clear, substantive, and balanced journalism in this field has never been greater, with an aging population seeking more and better health care, and a rapidly evolving medical and drug industry," said Ruppel Shell. "We hope to offer all journalists-those just starting out as well as mid-career professionals-the kind of ongoing education that can help them cover these areas in a clear, literate, and substantive way." The Knight-funded center, which will open in the fall of 2001, will add the following components to Boston University's existing science, public health, and medical journalism curriculum:
"We're especially interested in bringing Third World journalists into the Center," said Starr. "These professionals need all the help and support we can give them-especially those in countries facing ongoing health crises from poverty, war and emerging diseases." The Miami-based Knight Foundation makes national grants in the fields of journalism, education, and arts and culture. Brothers John and Jim Knight, who owned several daily newspapers and later acquired Ridder newspapers to create Knight-Ridder Newspapers, Inc., created the foundation in 1950. The foundation is separate from and independent of the newspapers. For additional information, contact Ruppel Shell and Starr at 617-353-4239.
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