Multi-faceted health Web site lacks personnel, funds
Journalism fellow attempts to provide a comprehensive health source.
Published July 8, 2009
The fate of a prototype for a new solution-oriented health Web site, developed by Reynolds Journalism Institute fellow Jane Stevens, 10 journalism students and two professors, is uncertain due to lack of personnel and funds.
The students and professors worked throughout the 2008-2009 school year to create the Web site, called Health Commons, which was meant to benefit the Boone County community. A MU news release stated the site is part of a larger experiment for niche Web sites.
"Newspapers are in trouble," said graduate student Mark Poepsel, who worked alongside Stevens. "I'm concerned that if journalists don't carve out a place for ourselves in the socially-networked information world, a whole mess of special interests will cut us out of the news and information business."
The students who worked on the project each developed their own section to reach out to a particular demographic of residents. The sections included Nosurance, which helps those who had little or no health insurance; Project Artemis, which focuses on young women's health; Chomp, for dental health; Home Grown, which is used to promote nutrition and local farming; Mind Over Matter, which is a section for mental health; and Wise, for senior citizen health.
"Senior citizens don't always feel comfortable asking a doctor a question," graduate student Paula Hunt said. "Wise provides both the physician's side and the senior's side so that everyone is talking in the same language. People can follow directions better, have better health outcomes and we can have a healthier community".
Poepsel said although this is an exciting project many people could benefit from, the funding for the Web site was never a guarantee for the summer months and therefore the Web site has not been able to go live yet.
"I think most people in RJI and the journalism school saw it as an exciting possibility, but there is just not a ton of money or extra personnel to devote to getting a project like this off the ground," Poepsel said.
Stevens' graduation in May also raised questions regarding who would oversee the Web site from that point. Stevens was unable to be reached for comment.
Different ideas for Health Commons were discussed, including using Health Commons as a part time job for two or three students who would keep it running until the fall semester, when it would then be maintained as a class project.
"We funded the developing of the Commons idea during Jane's fellowship, but decided that we could not continue the project in the summer because of other commitments," RJI program development director Roger Gafke said. "Had we gone forward with the site we would have been making a new funding commitment."
A source of funding for the Web site, as well as when it will go live online, remains uncertain.
"We got the project quite far and were almost ready to launch," Gafke said. "But, we need to continue it's experimental mode. The results of this project will help us understand what additional information we need to gather for a next phase."
