Reporting on road safety: a guide for journalists – WHO & Pulitzer

by | Dec 21, 2023 | News & Blog | 0 comments

The World Health Organization has teamed up with the Pulitzer Center to strengthen the advice given to journalists on road safety. As a component of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Road Safety Programme 2010-2014, WHO engaged with more than 1300 journalists in nine countries through tailored workshops on road safety. The aim was to increase media interest in and understanding of road safety as a critical health and development issue.

Produced jointly by WHO and the Pulitzer Center, with financial support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Reporting on road safety: a guide for journalists reflects the experiences and lessons learned from these workshops with journalists and editors, in particular those from low- and middle-income countries. In the guide and its accompanying pamphlet entitled 16 story ideas, readers will find links to stories, suggestions for new angles, descriptions of projects, and tips from editors, journalists and public health experts to enhance reporting on road safety.

An introduction the WHO’s 16 story ideas focuses on the following:

IN THIS BOOKLET WE USE A BASIC FORMAT — WHAT IS MY STORY’S FOCUS? WHO SHOULD I TALK TO? WHAT DO I ASK? — TO GUIDE YOU THROUGH VARIOUS KINDS OF ROAD SAFETY STORIES. THEY RANGE FROM SIMPLE COVERAGE OF A ROAD CRASH TO MORE AMBITIOUS  STORIES ON ROAD SAFETY AS A CRITICAL PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE.  THE LIST IS BY NO MEANS EXHAUSTIVE. ITS PURPOSE IS TO POINT YOU IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION AND HELP YOU THINK ABOUT VARIOUS WAYS TO APPROACH ROAD SAFETY STORIES IN A WIDER CONTEXT.

The booklet kicks off with 5 key points of oritentation:
  1. A road crash is not just a random incident: dig deep and ask why it happened.
  2. Keep a record of your road crash stories, reuse the material, make links, and look beyond the single event.
  3. Do not consider that a fatal crash is “covered” just because you wrote about it when it happened. Follow up on it, and write about it until the reasons for the crash have been fully investigated.
  4. Don’t wait for a crash to hap- pen; write on trends and get the experts’ views.
  5. While writing a story, keep in mind that you and your readers are all road users: what you write about applies to you all.

Download the guidance from WHO here.