Monthly Archives: August 2016

As a journalist, you are bombarded by press releases, studies and political announcements. You need help sorting through what is real, what is noise and what is flat-out deception.

The Poynter Institute is offering a half-day workshop to help you ask key questions that will make your reporting more reliable and make your journalism stand out from others who just report what they hear at a news conference.

We will:

Ø  Help you sort through promises and claims about some of the hottest topics in this political year including immigration, climate change and gun control.

Ø  Discover the money trail behind candidates to see who is supporting them including front groups for major businesses and industries.

Ø  Show you how political commercials manipulate the truth by using out-of-context facts, emotional music and patriotic images.

Ø  Show you how to look critically at online and social media posts to determine if they are real.

Ø  Help you to make sense of polling. Learn what questions to ask about the poll before you report the results.

Ø  Show you how all sources are not created equal and how your choice of sources will make your stories stronger and more accurate.

Ø  Teach you how to find the hidden metadata on digital online images to detect if they have been altered.

Ø  Show you how to verify and decode the science behind “scientific” studies.

Ø  Teach you they key questions you should ask about every study BEFORE you report the study’s claims.

Ø  Help you see the difference between correlation and causation.

Ø  Share the four KEY questions every journalist should ask on every assignment.

PLEASE NOTE: while the training and food are free (Morning Refreshments & Lunch Included), a  $25.00 donation to the WBA Foundation would be greatly appreciated.

To register for The Sensemaking Summit, Saturday, October 1 – 9:30AM – 1:30 PM

at the Madison Marriott West click here.