Journalism, Kinsey join to teach sex reporting

Journalistic reporting requires an effective relationship between reporter and source to relay important information to the reader. This is especially true when reporting on the issue of sex research. \nOften breakdowns occur between source and reporter that skew important public health information, but a collaboration of IU experts has created a class designed to strengthen the relationship between journalist and sex researcher.\nThe course, J460: Sex in the News: Beyond the Headlines, will be offered through the School of Journalism in collaboration with the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.\nThe idea for the class came from a workshop the Kinsey Institute created that addressed the issue of sex in the media. According to the workshop's Web site, www.kinseyinstitute.org/services/KIJ, eight journalists and eight sex researchers gathered with the goal of finding a way to provide research-driven information that would benefit the public.\n"We are very lucky at IU to have an exceptional School of Journalism along with the Kinsey Institute and such a wonderful opportunity to collaborate and make a difference in the way information about sex is reported," said Kinsey Institute communications director Jennifer Bass.\nLesa Hatley Major, the assistant professor in the School of Journalism who is teaching the class in the spring, said such collaboration between sex researchers and journalists is rare. \nThe Journalism Bulletin explains that the class will explore the barriers in responsible coverage, challenges, biases, political implications and ethics related to presenting and covering sexual news.\nMajor said she hopes what she teaches can be applied to other areas outside of reporting just sex research. \n"The goal of the class is to help students understand the relationship between source and journalist in order to benefit the public," Major said.\nThe class is designed for students who are interested in covering sex research in the media but is also for students who are going to be involved with sex research and want to learn how to communicate with journalists.\n"I first heard about the class while looking up classes being offered for the spring semester on the journalism Web site," said Joanna Jacobs, a senior majoring in broadcast journalism. "I needed another elective and (J460) struck me as different from the other normal journalism classes always offered." \nJ460: Sex in the News: Beyond the Headlines deviates away from the usual offerings of the School of Journalism.\n"Most of the classes in the journalism school are geared toward reporting hard news, but I'm more interested in doing health or entertainment news," Jacobs said. "So it's great to have more choices and information on how to go about covering those issues differently"