John Lister (journalist)

Dr John Lister is a Senior Lecturer in Journalism at the Coventry University Department of Media and Communication.

John has worked in print journalism since 1974, and also been involved in public relations and research on health policy in the UK and world-wide.

He has focused on health journalism since 1984, working at first full-time, and since 2004 part-time as Information Director/Editor of the pro-NHS pressure group London Health Emergency conducting research and offering publicity services to trade unions at local and regional level, local authorities and local campaign groups.

Health Journalism

In addition to producing branch and regional tabloid newspapers for affiliated union bodies, John’s detailed research through LHE has covered a wide range of subjects, from planned local hospital cutbacks and closures and the financial standing of health care providers in England and Wales, through studies on hospital cleaning, privatization of services, the controversial Private Finance Initiative, care of older people, mental health – and various government proposals for market-style reforms, from Margaret Thatcher’s 1989 “review” and subsequent White Paper, through Tony Blair’s government, and now the current far-reaching plans of the Conservative-led coalition.^[1][2]

He has conducted national-level and regional commissioned projects with the largest health union UNISON, and for the BMA.

John, who lives in Oxford, is also a founder member of Keep Our NHS Public, and a board member since 2005. He is a regular public speaker at meetings on NHS issues throughout England, as well as international conferences and events, and writes a monthly column on health issues for the Morning Star newspaper, and occasionally for other publications including Private Eye.

Lecturing

In his academic capacity, since 2004 John has also been a part-time senior lecturer at Coventry University, teaching Journalism, and Masters level Journalism and Health Journalism.^[3]

He has led a health policy, Contemporary Issues in Health, module for MSC health students at Coventry University’s Faculty of Health and Life Sciences since 1999.^[4] In 2006-7 John worked with colleagues in the University of Ottawa and other countries as part of the Globalisation and Health Knowledge Network of the World Health Organisation’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health,^[5] and since 2004 he has spoken at a number of international conferences on Globalisation and health policy issues. In 2013, Lister was invited by EvidenceNetwork.ca in Canada to present a series of lectures on what Canada can learn from Britain's National Health Service.^[6] He also addressed the quality of health journalism in Europe and North America, and outlined how health policy journalism can, and needs to be, improved.^{[7][8][9][10]}

HeaRT Project

Since the end of 2010 John has been involved through Coventry University as the UK partner in the EU-funded HeaRT (Health Reporter Training) project,^[11] involving seven partner countries, and which sets out to identify training needs and existing resources for the training of health journalists, and the develop and evaluate a training package that will enhance the skills of those working as health journalists and improve the quality of information provided by the news media.

References