The Rapid Response Salon panels are hosted by the Ithaca College Honors program.
The Rapid Response Salon panels are hosted by the Ithaca College Honors program.
While the country continues to battle the coronavirus pandemic, the disease’s impact on multiple industries has caused significant reflection. In September, the Ithaca College Honors program hosted the latest in its Rapid Response Salon series on COVID-19, with a panel discussion featuring four members of the Ithaca College community.
The main topic of discussion at the panel was the intersection of journalism and science during the pandemic. The role of race and racism was also debated.
“For me, scientific racism is recentering the racism on the impact rather [than] the intention. There are many scientists who are trying to do good work to further health equity, but that’s not necessarily the impact that’s being born out.”
Daniel Carrión ’08, an environmental health scientist
Moderated by Brooks Miner, assistant professor in the Department of Biology, the panel included Allison Frisch, assistant professor in the Department of Journalism; Kate Sheppard ’06, senior enterprise editor at HuffPost; Daniel Carrión ’08, an environmental health scientist; and ecologist Sandra Steingraber, a distinguished scholar in residence at the college.
Sheppard talked about the difficult task assigned to journalists who may need to expand their knowledge base significantly in order to report on the pandemic accurately and insightfully.
View the complete panel discussion here.
“We are all science, health and environment reporters now,” she said. “I think it’s on us as journalists to be knowledgeable of science and the scientific process and to build the skills that help us understand and unpack complex topics in ways that are accurate, proportionate and context-aware.”
Ecologist Sandra Steingraber spoke about the intersection of climate change and the pandemic.
Steingraber, whose research has been focusing on the ways in which the pandemic and the climate crisis intersect, touched on the impact of journalism as well, saying that the root causes of the pandemic have been underreported.
“Climate change has really set the table for [the virus] to spread,” she said. “It began with ecosystem disruption that caused wildlife to start moving, to start migrating; animal species began colliding with each other... and that really set the stage for viruses to jump from one species to another.”
Carrión, a postdoctoral fellow of Environmental Medicine & Public Health at Mount Sinai, brought up the importance of journalists doing their due diligence when reporting on a topic, saying they occasionally focus on one specific aspect of one specific study, rather than a collective assessment.
“Science doesn’t operate on the findings of one study,” he said. “Instead, we try to operate on the weight of evidence.”
“It’s a privilege to be able to afford a subscription to a news website. Those people who need this information the most are the very people who may not be able to afford it.”
Allison Frisch, assistant professor, Department of Journalism
Frisch discussed arguments for and against paywalls on news sites during widespread crisis, acknowledging that struggling media companies need revenue during this time, but that providing free access to critical information is a noble cause.
“It’s a privilege to be able to afford a subscription to a news website,” she said. “Those people who need this information the most are the very people who may not be able to afford it.”
Daniel Carrión ’08, credited his professors at Ithaca College with helping him become more critical.
In addition to the discussion about the role of journalists and journalism, panelists also discussed the role race, and racism, plays during the pandemic.
Steingraber talked about the impact of air pollution on communities of color, pointing out that it makes the virus more likely to be caught and more severe — and deadly — for those who catch it.
“We don’t spread oil and gas drilling rigs, pipelines and compressor stations and flare stacks over just anybody’s community,” she said. “Communities of color are the target for these places.”
Carrión urged scientists to define what they mean by race when using it in a study, saying that their intentions are not always shown by the results of their work.
“For me, scientific racism is recentering the racism on the impact rather [than] the intention,” he said. “There are many scientists who are trying to do good work to further health equity, but that’s not necessarily the impact that’s being born out.”
Carrión also talked about how his experience at Ithaca as helping him during his career. “I straddled the social and natural sciences,” he said. “The faculty at IC were so great because they let me do that, and [were] good at prompting you to be more critical. That has served me well.”