Program

The International Symposium on Online Journalism
25th Anniversary

SPONSORS

Primary ISOJ sponsors
More primary sponsors
More sponsors

MEDIA & ORGANIZATION PARTNERS

media and organizational partners

All times are U.S. Central, CDT (UTC -5). Click here to see the time in your location. This schedule is subject to change. Come back to this page for updates. Unless noted otherwise, all sessions are in the Zlotnik Family Ballroom of the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center.

Haga clic aquí para leer el programa en español.

THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2024

7:30-9:30 p.m.— PRE-ISOJ EVENT
“Breaking the News” – Documentary screening followed by Q&A session
Venue: Moody College of Communication, UT Austin, 300 W. Dean Keeton
Registration is free, but required. Sign up to attend in person.
“Breaking the News” is a documentary film about the women and LGBTQ+ journalists behind the launch of the nonprofit digital news startup The 19th*. (Please note event is in English.)

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2024

Venue: AT&T Hotel and Conference Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

7:30–8:30 a.m.—REGISTRATION AND BREAKFAST
8:30–8:45 a.m. —WELCOME SESSION

8:45–9:30 a.m.—KEYNOTE SESSION
Speak what you seek until you see what you’ve said: Creating a gutsy vision for local news

  • Keynote speaker: Wendi C. Thomas, founding editor and publisher, MLK50: Justice through Journalism
  • Chair: Emily Ramshaw, co-founder and CEO, The 19th*
9:30–10:45 a.m.—PANEL
Press Forward: A half-billion-dollar philanthropic initiative to revitalize U.S. local news

10:45–11:00 a.m.—COFFEE BREAK
11:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m.—PANEL
Using OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) and SOCMINT (Social Media Intelligence) for war coverage, investigative reporting and fact-checking

  • Chair: Marc Lavallee, director of technology product and strategy for the journalism program, Knight Foundation
  • Meg Kelly, senior reporter, Visual Forensics, The Washington Post
  • Eoghan Macguire, lead editor, Bellingcat, The Netherlands
  • Marc Perkins, investigations editor, BBC World Service, London, UK
  • Haley Willis, visual investigations reporter, The New York Times
12:15–1:15 p.m.—LUNCH BREAK
12:20–1:10 p.m.—LUNCH WORKSHOP
New Google tools for reporting and fact-checking
Registration for workshops is required and seats are limited. In English – there will be no interpretation. Located in Room 104.

  • Ashley Edwards, News Partner Manager, Associations and Local Partners, Google
  • Mary Nahorniak, U.S. Teaching Fellow, Google News Initiative
12:20–1:10 p.m.—LUNCH WORKSHOP
Strategies to optimize revenue in local news
Registration for workshops is required and seats are limited. In English – there will be no interpretation. Located in Room 115.

1:15–2:15 p.m.—PANEL
AI in the newsrooms: What is working now and how it is helping to improve journalism

  • Chair: Trei Brundrett, senior advisor (consultant), the American Journalism Project’s Product & AI Studio and Startups Studio
  • Lilian Ferreira, general manager of strategy and metrics, UOL, Brazil
  • Aimee Rinehart, senior product manager for AI strategy, The Associated Press
  • Andrew Rodriguez Calderón, data project lead, The Marshall Project
  • Zach Seward, newsroom’s editorial director of A.I. initiatives, The New York Times
2:15–3:00 p.m.—KEYNOTE SESSION:
Mission Impossible: Meduza’s 10 years of experience beating Kremlin censorship

  • Keynote speaker: Galina Timchenko, co-founder, CEO & publisher, Meduza (independent Russian media outlet operating from Latvia)
  • Chair: Kathleen McElroy, professor, School of Journalism and Media, UT Austin
3:00–3:30 p.m.—COFFEE BREAK/MEET-UPS
3:30–4:45 p.m.—PANEL
How should journalism and platforms constructively address the global challenge of polarization?

4:45–6:00 p.m.—PANEL
Social media regulation, copyright changes, government subsidies: How can new policies affect journalism?

  • Chair: Anya Schiffrin, director, technology, media and communications, Columbia University
  • Jeff Jarvis, Tow Professor of Journalism Innovation, Newmark Graduate School of Journalism
  • Amy Mitchell, founding executive director, Center for News, Technology & Innovation, CNTI
  • Victor Pickard, professor and co-director of the Media, Inequality & Change Center, University of Pennsylvania
  • Steve Waldman, founder and president, Rebuild Local News
6:15–7:45 p.m.—THE MOODY PARTY
A welcome reception offered by the Moody College of Communication in the courtyard of the AT&T Hotel & Conference Center, University of Texas at Austin. RSVP is required.

SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2024

Venue: AT&T Hotel and Conference Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

8:00–9:00 a.m.—REGISTRATION AND BREAKFAST
8:00–8:50 a.m.–RESEARCH BREAKFAST
Trends in online journalism research
Registration is required and seats are limited. In English – there will be no interpretation. Located in Room 104.

  • Chair: Vanessa D Higgins Joyce, associate professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Texas State University
  • Amy Ross Arguedas, postdoctoral research fellow, Reuters Institute, University of Oxford, UK
  • Richard Fletcher, director of research, Reuters Institute, University of Oxford, UK
  • Gina Masullo, associate professor, School of Journalism, and associate director, Center for Media Engagement, UT Austin
  • Sue Robinson, professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, UW-Madison
  • Anya Schiffrin, director, technology, media and communications, Columbia University
8:00–8:50 a.m.–BREAKFAST WORKSHOP
Building an agile newsroom to succeed in a rapidly changing future 
Registration is required and seats are limited. In English – there will be no interpretation. Located in Room 115.

  • Becca Aaronson, chief product officer and co-founder, News Product Alliance
  • Upasna Gautam, senior product management leader on the Digital News Platforms team, CNN
  • Damon Kiesow, Knight Chair in Journalism Innovation, Missouri School of Journalism
9:00–9:45 a.m.—PANEL
Global roundup: Part 1: Lightning presentations about the state of journalism around the world

  • Chair: Dawn Garcia, director, John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships, Stanford University
  • Manasseh Azure Awuni, founding editor in chief, The Fourth Estate, Ghana (Nieman/Harvard)
  • Faisal Karimi, founder and director, Afghanistan Institute for Research and Media Studies, Afghanistan (JSK/Stanford)
  • Efrat Lachter, investigative journalist, Channel 12 News, Israel (Knight-Wallace/Michigan)
  • Ángel Nakamura, multimedia journalist and research fellow, Mexico (UT Austin)
9:45–11:00 a.m.—PANEL
Influencers/content creators and journalists: What can they learn from each other?

11:00–11:15 a.m.—COFFEE BREAK
11:15 a.m.–12:15 p.m.—PANEL
Editors’ perspectives: The struggle of metro newspapers to survive and thrive in the digital era

12:15–1:15 p.m.—LUNCH BREAK
12:20–1:10 p.m.—LUNCH WORKSHOP
Balancing Journalism & Tech Related Policy with the Safeguarding of a Free Press & the Public’s Open Access to News
Registration for workshops is required and seats are limited. In English – there will be no interpretation. Located in Room 104.

  • Amy Mitchell, founding executive director, Center for News, Technology & Innovation
  • Connie Moon Sehat, senior research fellow, Center for News, Technology & Innovation
12:20–1:10 p.m.—LUNCH WORKSHOP
Optimizing Your YouTube Strategy for 2024 Elections
Registration for workshops is required and seats are limited. In English – there will be no interpretation. Located in Room 115.

1:15–2:00 p.m.—KEYNOTE SESSION
The business of journalism — creating a sustainable model

  • Keynote speaker: Meredith Kopit Levien, president & CEO, The New York Times Company
  • Chair: Evan Smith, co-founder, The Texas Tribune, and senior advisor, Emerson Collective
2:00–3:15 p.m.—PANEL
The media and election season: Are we gonna get it right this time?

3:15–3:45 p.m.—COFFEE BREAK/MEET-UPS
3:45–4:45 p.m.—PANEL
Global roundup: Part 2: Lightning presentations about the state of journalism around the world

  • Chair: Dawn Garcia, director, John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford University
  • Hannah Ajakaiye, lead, FactsMatterNG, Nigeria (JSK/Stanford)
  • Roberson Alphonse, head of national news, le Nouvelliste, Haiti (Knight-Wallace/Michigan)
  • Pavla Holcová, investigative journalist and founder, investigace.cz, Czechia (JSK/Stanford)
  • Yana Lyushnevskaya, senior journalist and deputy editor in chief, Kyiv bureau, BBC Monitoring, Ukraine (Nieman/Harvard)
4:45–6:00 p.m.—PANEL
AI in journalism: Ethics, opportunities and pitfalls

6:00-6:15—CLOSING REMARKS AND HONORING JOURNALISTS JOSÉ RUBÉN ZAMORA AND GUSTAVO GORRITI

  • Romina Mella, managing editor and investigative journalist, IDL-Reporteros (Peru)
  • José Zamora, chief communications and impact officer, EXILE 

SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 2024

9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.—POST-ISOJ CONFERENCE
17th Ibero-American Colloquium on Digital Journalism
Venue: Moody College of Communication, UT Austin
Registration is free, but required. Sign up to attend in person or virtually.
Registrants of ISOJ 2024 from Latin America, Spain and Portugal will convene for this annual meeting on online journalism in the region. (Please note event is in Spanish.)

SPONSORS: Knight Foundation, Google News Initiative, International Fund for Public Interest Media, Type Network, Center for News, Technology & Innovation, JSK Journalism Fellowships, Moody College of Communication, Newspack, News Product Alliance
MEDIA & ORGANIZATION PARTNERS: The Dallas Morning News, KUT News, Inter-American Press Association, Texas Tribune, Austin American-Statesman, Texas Press Association, The Daily Texan, Online News Association