News

5 Tips for Launching a Media Startup

I'm a woman journalist from the Middle East who has witnessed the critical need for independent media in the region. Here are my top five recommendations for fellow media entrepreneurs launching startups of their own, drawing from lessons learned during my time with MADRAJ and from working with our innovators.

Advice for Using TikTok to Drive News Engagement

During a recent ICFJ Empowering the Truth Global Summit session, Openly TikTok Lead and LGBTQ+ correspondent Enrique Anarte shared with journalists how to make engaging news TikToks. Here’s what he had to say:

How to Use Podcasting to Amplify Credible Reporting

In a recent ICFJ Empowering the Truth Global Summit session, ICFJ spoke with Amit Varma, writer, columnist and host of the weekly podcast, The Seen and The Unseen, about the role podcasting can play in amplifying credible reporting. Varma also offered tips on how to get started as a podcaster.

Journalists from Nigeria and Zimbabwe Win 2023 Michael Elliott Award

A journalist who investigated the lives of kidnapped schoolgirls now in university in Nigeria and another who chronicled how rising temperatures in Zimbabwe are impacting an all-women fishing cooperative are the 2023 winners of the Michael Elliott Award for Excellence in African Storytelling. 

Journalists Across 15 African Countries Expand Digital Skills

Godlive is one of 390 journalists from fifteen countries who took part in ICFJ’s African Regional Journalism Workshops, offered in three languages. The online trainings covered ethical newsgathering, investigative reporting, media sustainability and entrepreneurship, mobile journalism and elections journalism. Two dozen journalists from each language cohort were then selected to attend in-person workshops on disinformation and fact-checking. 
 

How Journalists Can Use New Visual Techniques to Create Viral Stories

Emojis, memes and gifs: you may text with them on a daily basis, but did you know you can also use them in your reporting to boost engagement?

Helping News Outlets Overcome Their Biggest Business Challenges

Great journalism alone isn’t enough. Independent news coverage cannot reach the communities that need it most if media businesses are not equipped to thrive.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to Receive Top Journalism Award

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) will honor CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer with the ICFJ Founders Award for Excellence in Journalism. The veteran journalist, who has delivered in-depth coverage of some of the world’s biggest stories in a career spanning more than five decades, will receive the award Nov. 2 at the ICFJ Tribute to Journalists 2023 event in Washington, D.C.

Understanding Deepfakes and How to Counter Them

From Snapchat face swap filters to U.S. President Joe Biden singing Baby Shark, manipulated media has proliferated in recent years. Deepfakes and other forms of synthetic and AI-assisted media manipulation are on the rise, and journalists tasked with sorting fact from fiction are forced to keep pace.

In Polarized Pakistan, a Digital Media Startup Aims to Provide a Middle Ground

In a society in which people are encouraged to take sides in their politics, unbiased perspectives can help individuals find middle ground and aid in depolarization. In Pakistan’s highly politicized media landscape, this type of news coverage is an anomaly.