]Minnesota Public Radio was able, during the height of H1N1’s second wave, to devote one reporter full-time to the story. In FluPortal’s recent webinar, that reporter — Lorna Benson — described how her station has approached swine-flu coverage — and what she’s learned from it. (This is the third excerpt from the webinar; first is here and second is here.)
Benson explained that before H1N1 appeared last April, she happened to attend a weeklong CDC workshop for journalists that included a section on pandemic flu. Once H1N1 struck, she found “that experience was very helpful.” It had introduced her to CDC flu experts, and she had a “good understanding” of how state and federal officials would work together during a flu pandemic (on medical testing, school closings, etc.).
During the summer H1N1 lull, anticipating a bigger outbreak in the autumn, MPR “took some time to sort through [its] pandemic coverage plan.” Benson also attended another CDC briefing — this time focused entirely on pandemic flu. And then a similar Minnesota Department of Health briefing. As a result, she was up-to-date on virus and vaccine details that helped her enormously when H1N1 resurged.
Among other things, Benson used the briefings to create an online swine-flu Q&A — which became one of MPR’s most-viewed web features. It received, Benson said, three to four times more hits than most. One lesson she drew from this and from audience questions during online H1N1 chats: there was a huge appetite for very basic H1N1 information.
Swine flu also taught Benson to stretch herself as a local reporter. She began listening to the CDC’s flu-update conference calls — which was, she said, “the first time that I had done something like that.” Prior to H1N1, she had thought these government calls were mainly for national media, but she learned that they included lots of information relevant to local H1N1 stories. As swine flu has tapered off in the last month or so, Benson has started reporting even farther afield: calling flu experts around the world to investigate the possibility of a third wave of H1N1. In other words: she found that national and international elements were indispensable for the best local reporting on pandemic flu.
To hear more about Benson’s experience reporting on H1N1, click on the “play” button below:
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You can also find links to much of Benson’s H1N1 reporting here. MPR’s H1N1 page is here.
Watch the entire webinar here.