How can you find the right voice or tone to use on your organization’s social media accounts? How can you show personality but also be appropriate when discussing different types of content? And how can you keep your voice consistent when multiple team members are posting and responding? Join Brandon Echter from Science Friday and Brian Manzullo from the Detroit Free Press to find out.
Lightning Chats
SEO Best Practices
What are best practices for newsrooms around SEO concepts these days? And what should you do if you’re charged with sharing them with the rest of your newsroom? Join Nicole Barton of KQED (and previously of YouTube), Adriana Lacy of the LA Times, and Jessica Lee Martin of CityLab to find out.
Online Participation
Engaged journalists know there’s value to good participation in and moderation of online comments. But what does that actually look like? In this 30-minute video chat with Teddy Amenabar of The Washington Post, Elizabeth Dunbar of Minnesota Public Radio, and Andrew Losowsky of The Coral Project, we’ll talk about some benefits of investing in comments. Then we’ll look at specific comment threads and do some live brainstorming about how journalists could/should/might participate in them.
Community Advisory Boards
How can advisory boards help newsrooms stay in touch with what matters most to their communities? And what are some best practices for setting them up, recruiting members and making the time useful? Join Elizabeth Stephens of Columbia Missourian, jesikah maria ross (JMR) of Capital Public Radio, and Kim Bode of News Deeply to find out.
Kickstarter for Engagement Projects
Let’s talk about the pros and cons, and the when and why, to using crowdfunding for your media project with hosts Courtney Hurtt of WDET and Madeleine Poore of WAMU.
What Does “Local” Mean?
How do local communities define themselves? How do news outlets define their audiences? And how do journalists know what’s important to their audiences and what niche they can fill? A recent report is a useful jumping off point for discussion of those questions. Join Amy Schmitz Weiss of San Diego State University, Jesse Hardman of the Listening Post Collective, and Madeleine Bair of El Timpano to continue the conversation.
Nextdoor for Journalists
You might use Nextdoor to keep up with neighborhood crime, gossip and lost pets. But have you used it as part of your journalism? In this video chat hosted by Beth O’Malley of St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Joe Lanane of Community Impact Newspaper, we’ll talk about how journalists are using Nextdoor and what they can learn by experimenting on platforms that are new to them.
Reddit for Journalists
Let’s talk about the when, the why and the how of using Reddit as part of our journalism. Bring your questions and experiences, and prepare to be guided by Bobby Blanchard of The Texas Tribune, Dominick DiFurio of The Dallas Morning News, and Gene Park – Embedded of the Washington Post (fresh off a session on this at ONA last month).
Audience-Focused Election Coverage
Does your election coverage provide what your community needs? How do you know? Fresh off their ONA talk on this topic, Ashley Alvarado of Southern California Public Radio and Julia Haslanger of Hearken will bring tools and strategies to help your newsroom better serve your audience.
Learning from Research into Engaged Journalism
What can engaged journalists learn from academic research, and what academic research would be most useful to us? We took on this topic with a panel of researchers, Jacob Nelson of Arizona State University, Talia Stroud of the Center for Media Engagement, and Nikki Usher of the University of Illinois, who believe in helping working journalists.
Using Comments to Tell the Story of Journalism
We need to change the conversation about journalism, and engaged journalists are on the front lines of public opinion. In the wake of Annapolis, let’s workshop ways to use engagement strategies to stand up for journalism. How can we answer comments from complainers and haters? Join Joy Mayer to continue the discussion.
Funding for Engagement Work
Are you looking for outside funding for your engagement work? In this 30-minute video chat, we’ll talk to Molly de Aguiar of the News Integrity Initiative, Paul Waters of Democracy Fund, and Karen Rundlet of the Knight Foundation who represent organizations that offer funding to support journalism. What do they wish journalists knew about how to find funding?