Watch: RSF Social Science Summer Institute for Journalists
On July 13, 14, and 15, RSF held a free seminar series to brief journalists on pressing public policy issues and how to engage social science researchers to expand coverage and identify new sources who are experts in their fields. Each session paired journalists with leading social scientists and policymakers. The seminar's hosts and moderators were journalists and RSF trustees David Leonhardt (The New York Times) and Nicholas Lemann (Columbia Journalism School and The New Yorker).
Accurate Reporting and the COVID-19 Pandemic (Tuesday, July 13)
Politicized discourse and the prevalence of misinformation prolonged the pandemic in the U.S. In this discussion, speakers Wafaa El-Sadr, University Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine, Columbia University, and David Leonhardt, The New York Times, discussed how to incorporate social science and epidemiology into reporting, especially as the U.S. moves away from pandemic-related restrictions.
Race in America: How Social Science Informs Black Lives Matter (Wednesday, July 14)
In this discussion, speakers Marc Morial, president, the National Urban League, and Rucker Johnson, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley, discussed long-term and systemic social inequities and the social science evidence on persistent segregation and discrimination in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.
The Biden Administration's Domestic Policy Agenda: Expanding Your Source List (Thursday, July 15)
President Biden’s economic policy agenda features increased spending on infrastructure, jobs, and job quality, and the child tax credit. Speakers Cecilia Rouse, chair, White House Council of Economic Advisers; Jason Furman, former chair, White House Council of Economic Advisors and Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy, Harvard University; and Michael Strain, Director of Economic Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute, discussed what social science has to say about these issues and how to engage social scientists as expert sources.