3Qs at the U with Science Sam: (Ep. 8) Jeffrey Dvorkin on journalism in a time of global pandemic

Stay-at-home orders and physical distancing have made the practice of journalism more challenging. And yet, as one University of Toronto expert argues, good journalism is more important than ever.

In episode eight of 3Qs at the U, Samantha Yammine – the alumna, neuroscientist and science communicator better known as Science Sam on social media – speaks with Jeffrey Dvorkin, the director of the journalism program at the University of Toronto Scarborough, about the difficulties of gathering news during COVID-19 and the need for mainstream media to cut through misinformation.

“One of the outcomes that I worry about is, can journalism still convey a sense of who we are as a culture…if we are barely out there,” Dvorkin says. “It’s up to mainstream media…to help the public figure out what is going on, what information they need to be aware of and what information they can comfortably ignore because it’s just nonsense.”

3Qs at the U is a weekly video series in which Yammine asks a U of T researcher three questions on a timely topic. It’s produced by U of T Scarborough interactive digital producer Cory Lawrence.

See a complete list of episodes

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