Heated situations involving journalists are more common right now which is why RTDNA is offering training on verbal de-escalation.
The training includes a one-sheet, five principles of verbal de-escalation, and tip and tricks.
Poynter is offering a free session on Wednesday about what journalists need to know about vaccine hesitancy:
Mass vaccination is the key to ending the COVID-19 pandemic. So why are approximately 40 percent of Americans not planning to be vaccinated? What role do journalists play in convincing people they should?
Tune in for our next On Poynt session called “Vaccine Hesitancy: What Journalists Need to Know” this Wednesday, March 31 at 11 a.m. CT. On Poynt sessions are free to attend and pop-up in concert with the news cycle, taking you behind the scenes of the story everyone is talking about.
This week, you’ll hear a fascinating conversation between Poynter senior faculty Joie Chen, Kaiser Family Foundation director of global public health & HIV policy Dr. Jennifer Kates, and KTRK/ABC13 anchor Chauncy Glover about the role of local journalists at this moment in the COVID-19 crisis.
Register now to attend for free, thanks to support from the Frank E. Duckwall Foundation.
Poynter is offering a free training session to challenge journalists to think more critically about the language you used to describe incarcerated people in your reporting.
A one-hour webinar titled “The Words We Use to Cover Criminal Justice, Jails and Prisons” and will be held April 21 at 11 a.m. CT.
The discussion will be led by ethics experts at the Poynter Institute and feature panelists from The Marshall Project, a leader in reporting on prisons, jails and justice reform. The Marshall Project recently reviewed its own policies about how incarcerated people are described.
You will hear why The Marshall Project is choosing to mostly eliminate stigmatizing labels like “inmate,” “convict” and “felon” from their coverage, and is choosing more specific language such as “incarcerated person” or “in prison, awaiting trial” instead. You’ll also get a chance to ask questions at the end of the webinar.
The next generation of storytellers is on display on campuses across Wisconsin, and they want to learn from you.
That’s why we have the WBA Student Storytellers website. Students are posting their work in student media in hopes of getting comments from professional broadcasters. Check it out and leave some comments.
Along with some recent submissions from schools, we’re also posting the winners from the WBA Student Awards for Excellence. There are new stories being posted every weekday.
If you’re looking for future talent to recruit, this is a great place to see who’s going to be graduating soon!
The RTDNA is starting a campaign to call for the passage of the Journalist Protection Act (JPA).
To kick off this campaign, we are gathering stories from our fellow journalists about why this legislation matters. If you have a story about how anti-journalist violence has impacted your work, we want to hear from you. Email us at PressFreedom@RTDNA.org or share your story on Facebook (@RTDNA.RTDNF), Instagram (@rtdna.rtdnf) and Twitter (@RTDNA) with the hashtag #JournalistProtectionAct.
Read more here.
A free self-guided course offered by Poynter is giving journalists tool to build trust with their communities.
Register free here: How Any Journalist Can Earn Trust
It’s a self-paced course, which means you can learn on your own time. You also can pick and choose the sections you complete and decide what you want to focus on first. In the course, you will learn:
The Society of Professional Journalists released this announcement connected to Sunshine Week:
As a part of Sunshine Week, the Society of Professional Journalists is publishing a “Reporter’s Guide to Algorithms,” which highlights examples of reporting on artificial intelligence and tips for how journalists can find similar stories on their beats. The guide was created by the SPJ Freedom of Information Committee.
Journalists have the responsibility to ask questions whenever they find bias within an algorithm. Nothing is more important to democracy than enlightening the public on how the government makes its decisions and why. In the 21st Century, this includes reporting on the ways the government uses artificial intelligence and whether those outcomes are fair, equitable and just.
“SPJ’s Freedom of Information Committee compiles a Sunshine Week project each year, and for the 2021 edition we unanimously agreed that the use of algorithms by governments was a subject that needs more attention and where reporters could benefit from a centralized source of information,” said Haisten Willis, who chairs the committee. “We hope this guide will help journalists who are beginning to cover this important topic as it grows in the national conversation over the next several years.”
In addition to the guide, SPJ will present a panel discussion on the topic at 7 p.m. EDT Thursday. During “Informing the public on the promise and perils of algorithms,” experts will discuss the growing issue of government use of algorithms to make major decisions, such as determining education funding, who gets a COVID-19 vaccine first and even predicting risk of reoffending for people with criminal records.
Planned topics of discussion are how algorithms are constructed, the best ways for reporters to learn about and inform the public of the issue and how journalists and journalism advocacy organizations can push for transparency in algorithms and how some already are.
As algorithms continue to play an ever-larger role in our society, we hope this guide and webinar prove helpful to journalists reporting on the issue.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice under Attorney General Josh Kaul released a new advisory to public bodies regarding public meetings in the age of COVID-19 during Sunshine Week.
To ensure that in-person meetings during the pandemic are reasonably accessible to the public, governmental bodies should keep the public health situation, guidance of public health professionals, and health concerns of the public in mind when making decisions about how open meetings are conducted. Further, governmental bodies are strongly encouraged to make remote access to meetings available through the duration of the pandemic.
The advisory also asks that pandemic practices that promote access should be continued after the pandemic.
By maintaining a remote option for public access to meetings or posting recordings of meetings as soon as practicable after meetings conclude, governmental bodies can advance the open meetings law’s purpose of ensuring government openness and transparency.
It’s Sunshine Week and some Wisconsin journalists are making the case for more openness in government. Here are some examples:
Matt DeFour’s wrote a Your Right to Know column on redistricting
Wisconsin State Journal editorial, “Shine more light on Wisconsin’s schools and cities”
Wisconsin State Journal national op-ed: “Open government is key to honest government”
WAOW-TV anchor Ally Peters is heading to Rochester, New York.
The evening anchor shared Friday this is her final week in Wausau.
Peters said she’s accepted an anchor/reporter position at WROC-TV. She’s worked at WAOW since 2018.
WBA Newsroom