Thursday, July 30, 2009

My Malawi Nurses Video Featured on CNN

I'm happy to report that my story and video of the crippling shortage of nurses in Malawi has now been published in CNN's new health section "Vital Signs."



I actually shot two videos from my trip to Malawi. You can see the other one on blip.tv. It's called "Telling Stories, Saving Lives."

The videos, as many of you know, were months in the making. Who knew there were so many parts to putting moving images together?

And I have to question the idea that anyone truly is ever alone in producing video.

Many thanks to Nieman Fellow classmates (Ayelet, Joan, Walter, Simon and Stuart) who, along with Jeb Sharp and Joe Neel, gave me guerilla lessons in shooting video, Katherine Bates (who helped ferry all the equipment), Eileen Hohmuth-Lemonick (who took the still photos) Ed Robbins (who edited the videos and wrote the script), Stefanie Friedhoff (who believed in the project and provided the funding) and, of course, the great people at Embangweni Mission Hospital itself.

The two institutions to thank are, of course, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism, which awarded me the fellowship on global health reporting--and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which supported the Nieman Foundation.*

I haven't even won an award or anything and I'm just gushing with all the people to thank--but perhaps I'll stop there.

*I believe there is no conflict on interest posed by the Gates funding since I was free to chose my project and did my reporting without editorial input from the Gates Foundation.

Anyway, just wanted to share the joy.

Related Post:
Planning is Key to Good Multimedia

3 comments:

Karen Grepin said...

Christine,

Great job and lovely video. I really enjoyed watching it and felt you really capture the real issues well.

Karen

Christine Gorman said...

Thanks, Karen. The video emerged from the concerns that the nurses themselves expressed. That turns out to be a really hard way to produce video--usually you have more of an idea before you go into it--but I am pleased with the results.

Sharon said...

What an awakening video! I hope that this video will not only end as a featured video on CNN but will help nurses get proper recognition that they deserve.

Tracy, Status Now