Monthly Archives: May 2021

The Wisconsin Department of Justice recently issued guidelines to help clear up confusion over how Marcy’s Law interacts with Wisconsin’s open records law.

Now, Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt, is asking the DOJ to go a step further and draw a bright line defining the separation between the state constitutional amendment protecting victims rights and Wisconsin’s open records law.

The debate could affects the public and media’s ability to access records, and in this case, the concern is over police records.

Read more here.

Many surveys have shown that local news is considered the most trustworthy, but a new study shows that young audiences share this view as well.

NAB is highlighting the study in this recent blog post.

Animation is playing a role in the evolution of storytelling in the digital age. RTDNA is hosting a webinar on June 4 to show newsrooms how these new tools are being used:

Learn how you can up your storytelling game by using animation in your news stories and see the research that proves it can help grow your audience. Join researchers from Northeastern University in Boston who have been experimenting with new ways to produce video news stories. The research involved placing two animators inside TV newsrooms in Chicago (WLS-TV) and Boston (WCVB-TV) for one year where they worked as visual content producers, creating dozens of animated news stories covering a range of topics for on-air and digital platforms. The researchers then tested a collection of the stories with audiences in both markets to better understand how consumers engage with and respond to animated and non-animated content. This 30-minute session will provide an overview of the findings, explain why it’s worth the investment, and give television stations a roadmap for moving forward with animation.

Trainer:

Mike Beaudet has worked in local television news for more than 25 years. He‘s an investigative reporter at WCVB-TV in Boston and a journalism professor at Northeastern University. Beaudet has won numerous awards, including multiple regional Edward R. Murrow Awards and 19 New England Emmys. A graduate of Emerson College, Mike earned his master’s degree from Northeastern. His research focuses on the future of video news storytelling.

Read more and sign up here.

Local TV remains a trusted source of news, but there are numerous efforts to make sure newscasts remain a vital resource for local viewers.

A qualitative study found that local news is alienating some people in their audience, and they’re looking for ways to address it.

This article from the Atlantic explains.

After two years at WQOW-TV  in Eau Claire, meteorologist Jess Langlois says she moving to Vermont.

Langlois made the announcement over the weekend.

She’s taken job at WCAX-TV in Burlington, Vermont.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice released this week guidance regarding access of public records under Marsy’s Law state constitutional amendment protecting the rights of victims.

Some law enforcement agencies have cited Marcy’s Law in decisions to withhold information from police reports. The DOJ guidance is aimed at providing clarity on how Wisconsin’s open records laws should be enacted under Marcy’s Law.

The DOJ guidance makes clear that Marsy’s Law does not create a blanket exception for records regarding victims. It affirms that custodians may withhold sensitive or personal information that may put crime victims in damage or lead to their further victimization; but these are reasonable considerations that could have come into play before Marsy’s Law. It also makes clear that the names of companies that become crime victims should in most cases be released. 

You can read the full guidance here.

A pandemic, civil unrest, and cutbacks were not enough to keep local newsrooms from producing more content than ever in 2020.

The first installment of this year’s RTDNA/Newhouse School at Syracuse University Survey was released Wednesday. You can read the first batch of takeaways here.

RTDNA will release more information about the survey in the coming days. Dig deeper into the data here.

An upcoming educational session from the WBA is aimed at helping TV reporters improve their standups.

NBC 7 San Diego Reporter and Director of Storytelling Joe Little is known for maximizing his time on camera when he’s live or recorded. He’ll share his tips to make your time on camera matter, move the story forward, and simply look better.

The session is June 17 at 10 a.m. It’s free for WBA members. You can register here.

Monday night the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the UW’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications with the Wisconsin Alumni Association hosted a virtual ceremony for the  The event was sponsored by the Wall Street Journal and the USA TODAY NETWORK.  

The annual award is given in honor of Anthony Shadid, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison journalism school in ’90. Shadid was an international reporter for The Washington Post and New York Times who died in 2012 while reporting in Syria.

This year’s recipients were Margie Mason and Robin McDowell of the Associated Press for. In interviewing more than 130 workers in Indonesia and Malaysia, they uncovered instances of rape, trafficking, slavery and child labor and traced those abuses back to some of the biggest names in food and cosmetics. 

Renowned photojournalist Lynsey Addario (New York Times, National Geographic, Time Magazine) gave the keynote in the form of a conversation with journalist David Maraniss. 

“I think it falls on us more than ever to make sure that we’re doing our jobs with integrity and that we’re being good reporters — we’re getting facts right, we’re getting all of our information right — because journalism is being challenged over and over,” . “The fake news narrative – which drives me crazy because I risk my life to get real news, not fake news. If I wanted to get fake news, I’d stay at home with my family and not be away for a month.”

Short clip of Lynsey Addario’s keynote conversation with David Maraniss

Link to entire ceremony