Early Childhood Journalism Initiative Webinar Series
Rarely have children and families the world over faced so many colliding crises as during this protracted global pandemic. The challenges of Covid-19 are exacerbated by political and economic instability, social upheaval, persistent inequalities, and the harrowing effects of climate change.
Yet, while children represent close to a third of the world’s population, there is relatively little reporting that focuses on the issues that affect their lives, and those of their families.
As part of the Early Childhood Journalism Initiative, the Dart Center has created a webinar series that will help journalists think through some of the most urgent global issues and how to approach them through an early childhood lens. We will speak with high-profile scientists and journalists that have been working on these issues all over the world.
UPCOMING WEBINARS
July 18, 2022: How Reporting on Children and Caregivers Can Improve Migration Coverage
Register Here
Young children are the face of a historic crisis of refugees and migration. In the world there are some 82 million people who have been forced to leave their homes because of war, persecution, or the climate emergency. Of those refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people, 42% are children. Covering the impact of displacement and family separation is challenging for journalists worldwide who want to inform their reporting with knowledge of children’s early brain development, emotional and cognitive growth, while events develop fast. In this webinar, we look at some of the science that can help inform our reporting of the international migration crisis and talk to journalists who have had to face tough decisions during their everyday reporting.
Panelists
- Ismail Einashe, award-winning journalist and writer, Lost in Europe
- Sally Hayden, award-winning journalist and photographer, author ‘My Fourth Time, We Drowned’
- Luis H. Zayas, chair in mental health and social policy, UT Austin
- Moderator: Irene Caselli, early childhood journalist
Speaker Bios
HEFAT certified, Sally has reported from countries including Nigeria, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, France, Germany, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Ireland, the UK, Lebanon, Jordan, DR Congo, Panama, Cambodia, the Gambia, Liberia, Hungary, Luxembourg, Ghana, Rwanda, Malawi, Ethiopia, Madagascar, the US, Italy, Malta, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia and Sierra Leone. Her writing has been translated into nine languages and she has appeared as a TV and radio guest. She is a member of the Frontline Freelance Register and Investigative Reporters and Editors.
Her first book, ‘My Fourth Time, We Drowned’, was published by HarperCollins, 4th Estate (UK) and Melville House (US) in March 2022.
A native of Coamo, Puerto Rico, Zayas received his BA from Manhattan College in economics and liberal arts. He received an MS in social work and MA, MPhil, and PhD degrees in developmental psychology from Columbia University. Zayas remains an active practitioner today through his evaluations of immigrant children and families facing deportation, and refugee and asylum-seeking mothers and children held in immigration detention centers. His forthcoming book, Through Iceboxes and Kennels: How Immigration Detention Harms Children and Families (Oxford), is based on his clinical work and research with children who have been held in immigration detention centers.
In January 2021, Caselli launched her own newsletter, The First 1,000 Days, where she continues her writing about the first 1,000 days, the foundational period of our lives that is too often overlooked.
September 2022 - Reporting on orphaned children and threats to family stability
Today’s colliding crises of Covid-19, war and civil conflict, the climate crisis and forced migration pose threats to a child’s family dynamics and stability. In this panel, we will discuss the ways in which losing a parent or caregiver can impact a child’s health, how to protect those children in the future, and methods for ethically and sensitively including these children in our reporting.
October 2022 - Looking at the climate crisis through the eyes of young children
Climate change is particularly dangerous for children, yet there is relatively little reporting that focuses on its impact for them and for their futures. In this panel, we will discuss how to cover the climate story, and our responsibility to get it right for our youngest generation.
November 2022 - Many different families: Pushing past stereotypes in our reporting
How do we make sure that our coverage of young children and their caregivers is not steeped in stereotypes and cliches? In this panel, we will discuss representation and diversity of experience, and offer tips and tools to break old habits in our coverage
Past Webinars
Webinar I: Why we need to pay attention to the mental health of children and caregivers
Only 2% of government health budgets are allocated to mental health spending globally — there is a massive gap between mental health needs and mental health funding. The Covid-19 pandemic has made it especially clear that children and their caregivers need more support, especially in low- and lower middle-income countries. We know that mental health is intrinsically connected to a child’s environment: from the experiences of parents and caregivers, to the opportunities for play and connection with peers — and is influenced by war, poverty, disease and access to opportunities. In this discussion, the panelists examined what we know about mental health for children and their caregivers, and how we can better inform our reporting on early childhood.
Panelists
- Tanmoy Goswami, mental health journalist and founder, Sanity by Tanmoy, India
- Chandra Ghosh Ippen, child trauma psychologist and associate director, Child Trauma Research Program at University of California, San Francisco, USA
- Anya Kamenetz, education reporter, NPR, USA
- Moderator: Irene Caselli, early childhood journalist, Greece
Speaker Bios
In January 2021, Caselli launched her own newsletter, The First 1,000 Days, where she continues her writing about the first 1,000 days, the foundational period of our lives that is too often overlooked.
Before starting out as an independent creator, Goswami was a contributor at The Correspondent; associate editor at ET Prime, the subscription-based news venture of India's largest business newspaper The Economics Times; and head of the desk at Fortune magazine's Indian edition. Tanmoy has coauthored a paper on suicide prevention for The Lancet Psychiatry and contributed a chapter to a book on leadership lessons from the coronavirus pandemic (Routledge UK, 2021). He lives in New Delhi.
She is also an award-winning children’s book author and has written 5 children’s books to support families who have experienced stress and trauma as well as the free Trinka and Sam disaster series, which has been translated and distributed around the world.
Kamenetz is the author of several books. Her latest is The Stolen Year: How Covid Changed Children’s Lives, And Where We Go Now. Her previous books touched on student loans, innovations to address cost, quality, and access in higher education, and issues of assessment and excellence: Generation Debt; DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education, and The Test.