Past Webinars: Learn from Journalism Experts

Please note that all webinars are on-the-record, so journalists are free to use quotes or video clips compiled below in their stories. To register for upcoming webinars, please go here.

 

Key Quotes: Newsroom Management During a Pandemic

Newsroom management can be a balancing act between people and content, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made finding that balance even more difficult. During a recent IJNet/ICFJ Global Health Crisis Reporting Forum webinar AJ+ Supervising Executive Producer Jon Laurence acknowledged the difficult balance and shared ways he and his team have tried to adapt.

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Tips For Podcasting During a Pandemic

With accessible technology and social tools available to anyone, media is no longer exclusive to journalists and journalism-adjacent careers. With just a few cheap — or even free — tools, anyone can create a podcast. The challenge becomes creating compelling content that the audience actually wants.

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Covering climate change in 2021 and beyond

2020 is on track to become the planet’s hottest on record. Experts say the climate crisis could erase the progress made in human health over the past century, and the communities hit hardest by climate change are among the most vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Essential data journalism tips and resources

Communicating data can feel like an overwhelming task. As journalists, how can we translate extensive numbers-based research and analysis into coherent, comprehensible reporting?

Data journalists have honed this skill set. They’ve refined how to best present data-related findings to most effectively inform their readers.

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Behind the scenes: Reporters who exposed Europe's COVID-19 spending

For many businesses, the novel coronavirus pandemic has been devastating. For some, however, the global health crisis presented an opportunity to make major profit. Since the severity of the virus became clear in early 2020, federal and local governments have spent millions of dollars purchasing items like personal protective equipment.

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Key quotes: The pandemic's effects on journalism

In early October, IJNet’s parent organization, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University released the preliminary findings of their English-language survey aimed at understanding the pandemic’s effects on journalists and newsrooms. The survey received 1,406 responses from respondents in 125 countries. 

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Asked and Answered: Your Questions about ICFJ Programs and More

“Over 36 years, ICFJ has provided more than 150,000 journalists from 180 countries with valuable programs and resources,” said ICFJ President Joyce Barnathan at our Tribute for Journalists 2020. But what are the programs, fellowships, global exchanges and awards available now? And what can journalists do to become part of the ICFJ network? 

 

 

 

Webinar 55: Lessons Learned Reporting on COVID-19: Italy

A Q&A with Cataldo Ciccolella, Elisa Marincola Di San Floro, and Lucina Paternesi of Report (RAI). Moderated by ICFJ Director of Community Engagement Stella Roque.

Italy was the epicenter for the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe with over 35,000 deaths and over 300,000 cases this year. At the peak of the pandemic, the country went into lockdown totally restricting the movement of its citizens. Journalists, however, as essential workers were provided with government permission to travel regionally and report on the toll COVID-19 was taking on the country and hold institutions and officials accountable. In this webinar, we speak to three veteran broadcast investigative reporters — Cataldo Ciccolella, Elisa Marincola Di San Floro, and Lucina Paternesi — from Report, Italy’s foremost investigative program, about how they strategized reporting safely during the pandemic and continued to get impactful stories during the countrywide lockdown.

 

 

 

Armenia's Ani Mejlumyan Battles Media Restrictions to Report the Pandemic

Investigative journalist Ani Mejlumyan recalls the onset of COVID-19. The day after Armenia declared a state of emergency in mid-March, the government censored the media to prevent them from reporting on the pandemic. Restaurants, meanwhile, remained open for ten more days. 

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Key Quotes: Convicts, Organized Crime & COVID-19 - Going Undercover for the Story

As the world focuses on combating the novel coronavirus, some governments are making it even more difficult for journalists to write about the impact of the global pandemic. In Romania, where the government severely limited access to public information, two investigative journalists went undercover to track the country’s supply of dysfunctional masks. The two journalists, Ana Poenariu and Andrei Ciurcanu, spoke with ICFJ Director of Community Engagement Stella Roque to explain how they went undercover to carry out their reporting. 

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Key Quotes: COVID-19 and Education — What's the Future of School?

The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the last school year for many students around the world. Now, experts are looking ahead to how ongoing outbreaks will affect education in both the near and distant future. 

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Key Quotes: Pandemic Profiteers — Trends in Crime and Corruption During COVID-19

A panel with Roman Anin, 2020 ICFJ Knight Trailblazer Award winner and founder of IStories; Aubrey Belford, global editor for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP); Indhira Suero Acosta, SembraMedia ambassador and CONNECTAS reporter (Dominican Republic); and moderated by Louise Shelley, director of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime, and Corruption Center at George Mason University. This webinar is organized in partnership with OCCRP.

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How to Counter Disinformation and Misinformation about COVID-19 Vaccines

To fight false information about potential COVID-19 vaccines, newsrooms must place collaboration ahead of competition, fact-checking experts said during a panel discussion this week produced by ICFJ and the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).

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Webinar 49: Science Pulse with ICFJ Knight Fellow Sérgio Spagnuolo

 

 

 

How to Promote Diversity in Coverage and in the Newsroom

“You have a television station. We have these AK-47s. We will have to tell our stories with these guns,” members of an indigenous community who had joined Maoist forces told journalist Shubhranshu Choudhary. “Your media will not give us any space.”

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Key Quotes: Reinventing the Journalism Business Model

Business models for news, already under threat before the pandemic, have been devastated during the global health crisis. How do we invent new ones so that citizens and communities get the news they need to make informed decisions?

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Beyond Fact-Checking: Fighting the Onslaught of COVID-19 Disinformation

To fight the COVID-19 “disinfodemic,” journalists must move beyond simply debunking the false information spread online, three experts said during a webinar on June 30. 

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Key Quotes: COVID-19 and Reporting on Communities of Color

The pandemic has disproportionately affected minority communities and communities of color around the world, panelists said in an ICFJ Global Health Crisis Reporting Forum webinar on Monday, June 29.

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Key Quotes: Health Crisis at Home — Reporting on Gender-Based Violence

Gender-based violence and abuse is the leading public health issue around the world, with research estimating that one out of every four women will experience harassment or abuse. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, and lockdowns and quarantines around the world, advocates worry that gender-based violence is on the rise — even if the number of reported incidents remains low. 

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Audience Engagement in a Time of Social Distancing

Audience engagement and service journalism—well-researched, advice on practical matters — are taking on new importance and driving change in newsrooms during the global COVID-19 pandemic, three engagement editors said during a webinar this week hosted by ICFJ and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. 

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Photojournalism in the COVID-19 Era

Covering COVID-19 is often an exercise in explaining statistics: How many people are sick? Unemployed? What is this week’s death rate? But photographers are showing us the human face — and cost — of the pandemic.

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Journalism & the Pandemic: Threats to Media Freedom & Safety During COVID-19

As COVID-19 spreads in waves around the world, “a vast array of threats” to journalists and press freedom are also proliferating, said Courtney Radsch, advocacy director for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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Three Ways Large Media Companies are Innovating During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The global COVID-19 pandemic is putting the journalism profession's ideas about digital news innovation to the test, said New York Times National Editor Mark Lacey.

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Key Quotes: Lessons Learned from Reporting on the Pandemic in New York

From a coronavirus hot spot to police brutality and street protests in Minneapolis, CNN national correspondent Miguel Marquez has covered the major stories upending American life during the first half of 2020.

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Key Quotes: COVID-19’s Effects On Freelancing — and its Future

Freelancers are at the core of journalism as we know it. But as the COVID-19 pandemic leads to budget cuts at almost every level, freelancers are struggling to find work. Without the support of an organization behind them, many freelancers have become responsible for their own safety and wellbeing, at a time when both are being threatened.

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How is the #COVID19 Pandemic Transforming Journalism?

As newsrooms across the world reel from the economic effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic, how can the journalism field forge a path to recovery?

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Holding Beijing to Account for COVID-19 Will Not Get Easier, Hong Kong Reporter Says

Reporting from China has long been a challenge, but with the country at the epicenter of a global pandemic, information control and censorship appear to be on the rise, South China Morning Post reporter Linda Lew said during an ICFJ webinar.

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Key Quotes: How to Ask the Hard Questions When Covering COVID-19

“Every interview — whether it’s with a victim of COVID-19 or the president of your country — is a fight for control,” said Julian Sher, a veteran TV documentary writer and director, during an ICFJ webinar.

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Key Quotes: Media Sustainability During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Before the arrival of COVID-19, the state of the news industry was already precarious: revenues were down and news organizations were folding. Across the world, news deserts have become more commonplace.

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How I Survived COVID-19

Journalists are on the front lines of the pandemic, sometimes risking their health to provide up-to-date information to the public. When reporters themselves contract the novel coronavirus, it takes a toll, physically and emotionally, three reporters who have lived through it said in an ICFJ webinar. 

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#CoveringCOVID: At a Critical Time for News, Reporters Persist Despite Growing Risks to Press Freedom

At a time when citizens need fact-based, trustworthy information to survive the global pandemic, reporters face mounting threats as they report on the crisis, three distinguished journalists said during a panel discussion Monday. 

“Journalists have the opportunity to amplify public health information and save lives,” said Washington Post opinion writer Jason Rezaian, who spent more than a year in prison in Iran. “We’re not going to come up with a vaccine, but we are able to share this information far and wide.”

Rezaian, along with Cilla Benkӧ, director-general of Swedish Radio, and Melinda Liu, the award-winning Beijing bureau chief for Newsweek magazine, highlighted several trends beleaguering press freedom during the pandemic. ICFJ Senior Vice President Sharon Moshavi moderated the panel. The webinar was a partnership between the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and the Embassy of Sweden in Washington, D.C.

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How to Cover the Economic Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for a Local Audience

In Rick Dunham’s 35 years as a reporter, including 15 years at Business Week, no previous economic story has compared to the current global economic crisis. Fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is the “biggest economic story of our careers,” he said in a webinar Friday.

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Key Quotes: Journalists’ Safety on the Frontline of #COVID19

Newsroom managers overseeing COVID-19 coverage "need to become trauma literate," said Cait McMahon, founding managing director of the Dart Centre Asia Pacific in Melbourne, during a webinar Friday as part of ICFJ’s Global Health Crisis Reporting Forum.

Understanding trauma will not only help protect the reporters on your team, but "actually enhances journalism," she said. "You will understand the communities and the individuals you’re reporting on in a much deeper way."

McMahon, along with Egyptian journalist Abeer Saady, a former war correspondent with 27 years of experience in conflict zones, joined ICFJ's Global Director of Research Dr. Julie Posetti for a discussion about the threats reporters are facing as they cover the pandemic, how they can protect themselves and how their employers can support them.

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Key Quotes: Combating the Infodemic Surrounding COVID-19

Reporters and news organizations should engage the public in debunking information in their own networks, said Andy Carvin, senior fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), during an ICFJ webinar Thursday. 

“If it's only professionals working to correct the public record or clarify what the science is, there will continue to be misinformation and disinformation spreading,” he said. 

Carvin and Indian health journalist Nayantara Narayanan, who works with PROTO, ICFJ’s partner organization in India, joined ICFJ's Global Director of Research Dr. Julie Posetti for a webinar to examine global trends in COVID-19 disinformation.

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A Story of Uncertainty: How to Deal with COVID-19 and Data

When reporting on the global pandemic, where can reporters find the exact figures for the number of people who are infected with COVID-19?

We can't. Exact figures on those infected don't exist, and during this rapidly unfolding crisis, even solid estimates are tough to come by, said visual journalist Davide Mancino during a webinar Wednesday with Stella Roque, ICFJ’s Director of Community Engagement, as part of ICFJ’s Global Health Crisis Reporting Forum.

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Key Quotes: The Stark Contrast in Reporting Epidemics in South Africa with Journalist Mia Malan

South Africa provides a stark comparison of the government’s reaction to two deadly epidemics — HIV/AIDS and COVID-19, Mia Malan, a veteran journalist who covered both outbreaks, said in an ICFJ webinar.

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Key Tips for Getting High-Quality COVID-19 Footage while Working From Home

Yusuf and Sumaiya Omar have trained communities around the world to create their own video storytelling projects through Hashtag Our Stories, a cross-platform video publishing company the couple founded. Now, with COVID-19, the ability to harness the power of user-generated video content is becoming essential for journalists all over the world, they said in an ICFJ webinar on Wednesday, April 15, 2020.

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Self-Care on the Frontline - What Would a Responsible Journalist Do? Q&A With Veteran Reporter Elaine Monaghan

In this unprecedented time, taking care of your well-being isn’t selfish — it’s essential, said veteran reporter and journalism educator Elaine Monaghan during a webinar Tuesday with Patrick Butler, ICFJ’s Vice President for Content and Community, as part of ICFJ’s Global Health Crisis Reporting Forum.

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Media freedom threats and COVID-19 with UN Special Rapporteur David Kaye and CPJ’s Courtney Radsch

Journalists and advocates cannot afford to wait until the COVID-19 crisis slows to address the growing restrictions on media freedom cropping up around the world, media freedom experts said during an ICFJ webinar Thursday, April 10, 2020.

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Doctors and Journalists in Asia Collaborate to Fact Check COVID-19 Myths

Journalists should watch out for misinformation about vaccines and fake treatments for COVID-19 because misleading the public can lead to deaths, say two fact-checking experts who collaborate to debunk health myths in Asia.

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How All Journalists Can Cover the Health Beat During the COVID-19 Crisis With Thomas Abraham

Abraham discussed the reality today for reporters who have been thrown into covering the COVID-19 pandemic, and compared what is happening now with his experience covering the SARS virus in 2003. For Abraham, the key question journalists should be answering right now is what is the human story behind health and science reporting?

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Frontline Lessons from International News Outlets Reporting the Pandemic With Maria Ressa, Ritu Kapur and Branko Brkic

Facing a possible “extinction event” for independent media worldwide, journalists must work together globally to combat a triple threat of disinformation, government restrictions and economic calamity worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, three top editors said during an ICFJ webinar on April 3, 2020.

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