Weaving FASD Stories, Science and Research
When you think of media coverage for FASD what stories immediately come to your mind? Is it a respectful and honest piece or is it stereotypical and sensationalized? Do you know how feature stories are pitched, decided, and developed?
In April 2018, an in-depth feature on FASD appeared in one of our National newspapers. A year later three more features. Last month, a fourth appeared by the same reporter. I decided it was time to dig behind the scenes to find out who this reporter was and how and why she become such a champion for FASD.
Vanessa Hrvatin is a multimedia journalist, science writer, and science communications specialist currently working as a freelance journalist and writer. She is also a part-time Communications Coordinator for the DjavadMowafaghian Centre for Brain Health at the University of British Columbia. She holds a Master of Journalism from the University of British Columbia and a BSc. in biology and environmental science from Queen's University.
She was the 2017/2018 recipient of the Michelle Lang Fellowship and spent a year working at the National Post and Calgary Herald on a special series about Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).
Her work has also appeared in the Globe and Mail, Maclean's, Reader's Digest, the Canadian Medical Association Journal News, the Toronto Star, and Canadian Geographic, and she spent time at Global News BC as a broadcast writer.
Her goal is to tell important stories and she has a special passion for science and health reporting. She also happens to be the first journalist I have interviewed for the podcast. And to say I was a little nervous is an understatement.
When Ontario released their first FASD strategy I was hearing from people that it was a great start, but we have so much more work to do. When developing my pitch for the feature, I was asking people, what do you not like about FASD coverage in the media. What do you think we haven’t covered?
I love how she found a way to combine both her passion for science and writing for the benefit of the FASD. Join me as we go undercover and behind the scenes in the making of an FASD feature and a champion. You will hear:
Not much has changed. We still don’t know how to properly support people who are transitioning into adulthood. Despite knowing about this (FASD) for a long time, we still have a gap in research and data. We need to move faster.
I am so thankful that we have Vanessa on our team who continues to identify the gaps and tell the stories. She told me because she has spent so much time with the FASD community she has many more story ideas. I can’t wait to see them!
Do me a favour and check out the pieces she has written (links in the show notes), leave a comment on the stories and let Vanessa and the newspapers know the importance of sharing personal, research and science-backed stories about Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.