Webinar for journalists covering COVID-19 vaccines now available in 13 languages

Video of the popular webinar offering international perspectives for journalists covering the COVID-19 vaccines is now available in six additional languages, amplifying the number of media practitioners able to benefit from this educational resource offered by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, in collaboration with two United Nations agencies.

“Covering the COVID-19 Vaccines: What Journalists Need to Know” is now available to watch in Bambara, Dari, Guarani, Hindi, Pashto and Wolof. It was previously offered in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

The webinar, moderated by health and science journalist Maryn McKenna, features science journalists, virologists and medical experts from around the world who share research-backed insights and tips for media practitioners. It was originally held on Jan. 29 in collaboration with UNESCO and the World Health Organization (WHO), with funding from the European Union (EU), but can now be viewed at any time.

Although the recently added languages are spoken in a variety of countries, Dari and Pashto are the official languages of Afghanistan; Bambara is a national language of Mali; Guarani is native to Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil; Hindi is an official language in India; and Wolof is a national language of Senegal.

“Journalists around the world have been struggling to offer the best information possible about the COVID-19 vaccines and we believe this three-hour webinar contains precious information that can help reporters and editors around the world to better understand the immunization programs,” said professor Rosental Alves, founder and director of the Knight Center. “We are grateful to UNESCO, WHO and the European Union for allowing us to extend the reach of the webinar with the additional versions of it in more languages.”

The webinar is just one of the resources that make up the Journalism Courses’ special section for journalists covering the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Most recently, in April 2021, McKenna and assistant instructors from France, Argentina and Brazil taught the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Covering the COVID-19 vaccine: What journalists need to know.” It was held in partnership with UNESCO, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and WHO, and co-funded by the EU. It is now available as a self-directed course on the Journalism Courses platform in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.

McKenna also taught the MOOC “Journalism in a pandemic: Covering COVID-19 now and in the future,” which was also produced in collaboration with the WHO, UNESCO and UNDP in May 2020. It is now available as a self-directed course in English, French, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

The Knight Center, UNESCO and WHO also put together a multilingual list of resources for journalists covering COVID-19 and vaccines.