Better Media Reporting on Opioids: Data, Racial Justice, and Harm Reduction
Opioid and other substance use disorders are heavily stigmatized. Media plays an important role in shaping perceptions of public health concerns and impacting the public policy responses. This press briefing and discussion examined the relationship between media coverage and public policy, introducing a toolkit to guide reporters in integrating public health solutions into coverage of the opioid epidemic.
Led by Veronica Alexander, Yuliana López, and Wesley Epplin, we explored the role the media has played in stigmatizing drug use and how today’s coverage continues to perpetuate inequity with racialized narratives. We emphasized the importance of harm reduction techniques in de-stigmatizing drug use and in shaping narratives to support policies that focus on treatment and health equity.
We discussed:
- The most current data on the national opioid epidemic and the paradoxical trends that differentiate Chicago
- Recommendations for cutting edge harm reduction practices and innovative public policy solutions
- The correlation between stigmatization and criminalization, and how to report from an anti-racist lens
- Alternatives to stigmatizing language, framing, and conventional narratives, and the difference best practice journalism can play in policy decisions
There were presentations from Chicagoland harm reduction experts, people with lived experience, journalists with expertise, and health policy experts about how we can work together to improve how we cover opioids.
Here are the slides from the event’s presentations:
- Addiction Narratives: How Our Language and the Stories We Choose to Tell Shapes Debate and Policy by Journalists Maia Szalavitz & Zachary Siegel
- Harm Reduction in 12 minutes by Iliana Espinosa-Ravi, MSW, MPH
- Reframing the Rhetoric: Using evidence in reporting about substance use by Suzanne Carlberg-Racich, MSPH, PHD
- Opioid Media Toolkit Overview: A Tool for Journalists by Veronica Alexander