SYRACUSE — Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications this fall participated in a concussion-reporting training program that Syracuse described as a “first-ever” venture. Newhouse professor of practice Olivia Stomski taught the three-hour concussion-reporting workshop that was developed to “help journalism students learn the best ways to cover concussions,” Syracuse said in a Nov. […]
SYRACUSE — Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications this fall participated in a concussion-reporting training program that Syracuse described as a “first-ever” venture.
Newhouse professor of practice Olivia Stomski taught the three-hour concussion-reporting workshop that was developed to “help journalism students learn the best ways to cover concussions,” Syracuse said in a Nov. 20 news release.
Stomski, director of the Newhouse Sports Media Center, taught the workshop as part of the radio sports broadcasting course.
The workshop is part of the Concussion Foundation Media Project, an initiative of the Boston, Massachusetts–based Concussion Legacy Foundation (CLF) that also includes a concussion-reporting certificate for working journalists.
Stomski helped develop the project in collaboration with sportscaster and Newhouse alumnus Bob Costas; J.A. Adande, director of sports journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism; and Andrea Kremer, “Thursday Night Football” analyst with Amazon Prime.
“The guidelines on covering concussions are changing all the time,” Costas said in the Syracuse release. “Until now, there has never been a resource for journalists to stay current on the science, the protocols or the appropriate terminology.”
CLF co-founders Chris Nowinski and Robert Cantu formally launched the Concussion Foundation Media Project at a Nov. 9 press conference held at Syracuse University’s Fisher Center in New York City. Cantu is a physician who serves as CLF’s medical director.
Educating a wider audience
The Syracuse release cites a recent study from the Atlanta, Georgia–based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that indicates most children from lower-income families do not receive formal concussion education. It also says other research indicates that most youth coaches have “not been trained to recognize or appropriately respond” to concussions. Sports media is a “way to educate these hard-to-reach groups and help keep children safe in sports.”
“Journalists reach millions of people doctors can’t,” Cantu said. “Most concussions are still not diagnosed, so by identifying the signs of a concussion, talking about the proper response and avoiding words like ‘dinged’ or ‘bell-rung,’ reporters can perform a valuable public service and maybe even save a life.”
The Newhouse School will again offer the concussion-reporting workshop this spring in the television play-by-play course, which Matt Park, the “Voice of the Orange,” teaches; in the sports-reporting course, taught by Steve Infanti, sports director at WSYR-TV NewsChannel 9 in Syracuse; and in the sports-production course that Stomski teaches.
In addition, Adande will also teach the workshop at Medill, and Kremer will teach the workshop at Boston University.
In it, students learn about the correct terminology to use when reporting on concussions, the long-term effects of these injuries, and the protocols of different sports leagues and how they differ. They also review and critique real clips and practice calling relevant incidents.
“The workshop gives professors cutting-edge tools to teach the next generation of journalists how to report on the nuances of concussions, such as differentiating between concussion signs and symptoms and knowing a concussion is a brain injury, not a head injury,” Stomski said. “We have to know this just as well as we know the players’ names and just as well as we know the rules of the game.”
