When Disaster Strikes: Reporting and Responding

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<a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=b6e1b8a4e9">When Disaster Strikes: Reporting and Responding</a>

When and Where

April 14, 2011
8:30 am – 5:00 pm
Boston University Photonics Center
8 Saint Mary’s Street
Boston, MA 02215

About the Conference

Earthquakes, epidemics, oil spills. Tsunamis, mine explosions, flood, famine, war. While the ashes still smolder, while the rubble lays untouched, first on the scene are two categories of professionals. Humanitarian aid workers arrive immediately, determined to help in any way they can. Journalists descend simultaneously, intent upon recording the history as it unfolds.

And so continues an often unexplored, symbiotic relationship. Health care professionals and other aid workers need journalists to convey the dimensions of disaster to every corner of the globe. Journalists rely on public health specialists to provide information, context and real-life narratives to make a crisis come alive. Too often, these groups collide. Journalists jockey for the same airplane seats, hotel rooms and rental cars that aid workers require, at precisely the same time. Journalists show up at inopportune moments, demanding the latest points of interest, right this minute. Fierce deadlines mean that details (and sometimes, basic accuracy) suffer. Aid workers who are untrained in dealing with the media can be left feeling ambushed.

This conference could not be more timely. First, the disaster in Haiti: 300-thousand dead, millions homeless. A challenge for reporters and first responders. Since then – Chile, New Zealand, and now, the triple threat in Japan – earthquake, tsunami, and radiation. Plenty of issues. We’ll try for answers.

-RD Sahl

When Disaster Strikes: Reporting and Responding is an international conference that will explore the collaboration and tension between journalists and public health workers at times of crisis. The April 14, 2011, gathering at the Photonics Center at Boston University will mark the first annual collaboration of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and Boston University’s Center for Global Health and Development, School of Public Health and College of Communication.

A wide range of experts from the fields of global health, NGOs and journalism, as well as citizens and volunteers will use this first convocation to focus largely on the many layers of crisis. Post-earthquake Haiti —as well as the multifold crisis in Japan — will be used as a touch-point for discussions. The gathering will strive to establish strategies to allow journalists and aid workers to function collaboratively, with minimal interference.

Keynote Speakers

Kerry Sanders has been NBC’s Miami-based correspondent since 1996, covering news mainly in the South and throughout Latin America. Sanders contributes regularly to “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams,” “Today,” MSNBC and occasionally to “Dateline NBC.” Sanders covers breaking news and feature stories. He has more than 20 years experience providing in-the-field-reports during hurricanes. He was a member of the NBC Nightly News reporting team that was awarded a Peabody and the RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Sanders was also one of NBC’s embedded reporters during the Iraq war, traveling with the U.S. Marine Corps. He reported on various battles, including the harsh 11-day conflict in Nasariyah. In addition, Sanders has extensively covered the war on terror in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

Full biography

Sanders has received other numerous national awards. He was awarded an Emmy as a member of the NBC News team reporting on the 2008 national election. He was also awarded an Emmy in 2005 as a member of the NBC News team reporting on Hurricane Katrina. In 2000, he won the Overseas Press Club Award for his coverage in Kosovo. In 1994 Sanders was honored with the prestigious Columbia-duPont, recognized for his reporting from Haiti as a military coup rocked the country. Sanders shared another Columbia-duPont award for his compelling coverage of the widespread devastation of Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Sanders was also a co-recipient of the RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award, and the George Foster Peabody Award for coverage of Hurricane Andrew and the aftermath of the storm. Among other honors, Sanders also received the National Headliner Award (the Persian Gulf War, reporting from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait), the Wolfson Media Award (Haiti: A Country in Crisis) and two regional Emmy awards. Before he was hired by the network in May 1996, Sanders spent five years at WTVJ-TV, the NBC-owned station in Miami that has often served as a launching board for reporters destined for national careers. While at WTVJ, Sanders was a regular contributor for “Today.” His reports included coverage of the Alas Airline crash in the Dominican Republic, the American Airlines Crash in Columbia and the ATF siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Sanders built the early portion of his television experience around learning to cover fast-breaking news in Florida, the nation’s fourth most populous state. Before settling in Miami, he worked for 5 and a half years at WTVT-TV, the CBS affiliate in Tampa. In the early 1980s, Kerry worked at the ABC affiliate in Jacksonville, Fla. and the CBS affiliate in Ft. Myers, Fla. Long interested in foreign affairs and broadcasting, Sanders began his career as a 20-year-old in Lima, Peru. He was a newsreader for Radio del Pacifico. Sanders grew up along the East Coast, spending most of his early years in Sudbury, Mass. He attended three high schools in Massachusetts, Peru and Orlando. Sanders graduated cum laude from the University of South Florida with a liberal arts degree (emphasis in journalism) in 1982.

Jane Derenowski is a producer for NBC Network News specializing in science and medical stories for NBC Nightly News, the Today Show, and MSNBC. She has traveled extensively covering public health issues including disaster-related medical care, swine flu, bird flu, SARS, AIDS, alzheimer’s disease, and obesity, among others. Originally from a small desert town in Arizona, Jane now lives in the Bronx and enjoys reading, collecting Beat literature, and watching movies with her husband.

Music

Zili Misik is a 7-piece all female band that performs New World SOUL:dance and roots music of the African Diaspora. Zili music reconnects Haitian roots, jazz, highlife, reggae, samba, Cuban son, gospel and neo-soul. Zili Misik is an aural, visual, and kinetic experience! Read more about the band.