Rural Health Care Access, Tips

Interactive narratives are informational and storytelling experiences designed and produced for the web. They leverage great design, visual journalism and rich-media content. There's a Weblog for folks who want to put up sites to share and discuss. A database of narratives and links and resources on producing Interactive Narratives and web design. From Hurricane Katrina diaries to newspaper stories online, you'll enjoy this only with a high speed connection.

Here's a short list of ideas to help cope with anxiety, loneliness, and stress from the National Mental Health Association.

Listen as NPR's Farai Chideya talks with a humorist and a psychiatrist about ways to deal with holiday anxiety.

No, it's not a new way to date . Sree Sreenivasan, Columbia Dean of Students & Poynter Visiting Professor writes a regular Web Tips column. His latest is about how journalists can make use of social networking Web sites. If you're looking for new sources, try this.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism offers a toolkit to tune up interviewing and reporting skills whether you are a seasoned journalist or a newbie. Read tip sheets, short articles or checklists on Using Email as a Reporting Tool, Arranging Your Questions, or Questions Guaranteed to Engage. Bookmark the page and read one a day to take an on-line, mini-course in reporting!

Bill Kovach, Chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists writes "A curious mind and a broad liberal arts education are by far the best qualifications for a career in journalism." In his short essay he covers the important points that you will be glad to pass along the next time a student asks you what it takes to be a journalist.

A new book from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (HHS) based on the 2005 Dietary Guidelines, will be in bookstores soon. The publication's aim is to give people easy-to-follow information about healthy living, to give "common sense ideas to help us improve our health." (Source: HHS)

Want to help someone become a radio producer? Here's a source that instructs the reader in great interview approaches, provides good technical tips, lists of other Web resources, and contains a library of wonderful stories. All of it clearly written.

The Poynter Institute has published its 2006 journalism training guide with so great many radio, tv, print, new media and on-line courses that you'll want to quit your j-job to take advantage of all of them. If you don't know Poynter, time to get introduced. As they say in the print version of the guide, "Don't just make a living. Make a mark."

The fourth annual health communication conference will be co-sponsored by the American College of Physicians Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine in Washington, DC on November 30, 2005. "Practical Solutions to the Problems of Low Health Literacy" will convene top experts in the fields of health literacy and health communication, as well as leaders from organizations and industries that are stakeholders in health literacy, including public and professional education, the business community, the insurance sector, and government and nonprofit organizations. The conference will focus on successful operational models that have been shown to improve health outcomes among patients with low incomes. Registration is just $45. Complete information is available online.
Date: November 30, 2005