New England Newspaper & Press Association

Political disinformation is surging as the 2024 presidential election approaches — both from within the U.S. and by foreign actors. But what are the biggest dangers? AI and deep fakes? Social media amplification of lies and incitement to violence? Americans’ distrust of the media and other institutions? Just four weeks from the election, PEN America has gathered top journalists and researchers who battle disinformation to let you know what they’re seeing, what concerns them most, and how voters can identify and counter disinformation during the final countdown.

Join PEN America for a timely webinar featuring experts at the forefront combating political disinformation. Moderated by Nina Jankowicz, co-founder of the American Sunlight Project, the panel includes Roberta Braga, founder of the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas; Tiffany Hsu, disinformation reporter for The New York Times; Brett Neely, supervising editor of NPR’s disinformation reporting team; and Samuel Woolley, University of Pittsburgh professor, disinformation researcher and author.

Register today for those who can’t attend live, and the recording will be delivered to your inbox.

Whether it be the headline, who you interviewed for the story or the language used, when covering a controversial topic, it’s almost guaranteed someone will disagree with your coverage — or at the very least, make quick judgments about it purely based on the topic. In this training, you’ll learn strategies for how to cover hot-button issues without alienating or overgeneralizing segments of your community. We’ll talk about how to signal fairness and explain your work in a way that makes the coverage more accessible by people with different views on the issue. We’ll be joined by John Diedrich at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who will share his fresh approach to his award-winning series on guns and how he was able to find common ground across the political spectrum.

In this free training series, Trusting News is focusing on quick, actionable steps journalists can actually DO ahead of the 2024 election to help coverage feel credible and accessible to a larger audience.

Here’s what you can expect: Each session, we’ll spend 45 minutes focusing on how journalists can take action. We’ll include perspectives from partner journalists and show examples of how they’ve implemented these strategies in their own newsrooms. Then we invite you to stick around for another 15 minutes if you have questions or want help brainstorming.

Join the University of Vermont Center for Community News and Student Press Law Center for a discussion of legal issues, liability, and more! This event is perfect for folks starting and expanding student reporting programs in partnership with local outlets. Bring your questions!

This five-part series offered by the New England Newspaper & Press Association and the New York Press Association covers essential strategies, from building engagement-first content and using email as a powerful revenue tool to navigating the evolving landscape of social media, and the latest best practices for creating content that drives real results.

This Audience Development series is built and presented by The AQ, a GTM/Growth agency, founded in 2021 by Allison Mezzafonte + Kerry Twibell. This series has been created in collaboration with Scott Mebus, strategic advisor. The AQ advises tech and media on positioning + business development to drive revenue, delivering playbooks for content development, audience development, market strategy, and growth acceleration.

The series will be available starting on October 4, 2024. After you purchase a ticket, you will receive a link to a page with all the VOD (Video on Demand) programming and Zoom meeting instructions for the final live session on November 1. The suggested format is to watch one video per week by Friday, leading up to the final live session.

VOD Session 1 – Audience Acquisition & Engagement: Techniques and best practices to build audiences across channels (search, social, email)

VOD Session 2 – Newsletter Engagement: Tactics for using email as an acquisition and engagement channel and a revenue source.

VOD Session 3 – Meaningful Social: Organic reach on social has dropped over the past four years. Platforms are rewarding engagement above all. The days of automatic reach are over. It’s never been more important to create an engagement-first content strategy. Strategies for building a following that really pays.

VOD Session 4 – The New Search: YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world, and TikTok is quickly rising up the ranks. Social video is the new search. Tactics and best practices for preparing your organization.

Live Wrap-up 5 – Audience: A Look Back: Live tune-in session Friday, November 1 beginning at noon over Zoom with course attendees to revisit topics in VOD sessions 1-4. Key takeaways, etc. How to’s, to take back into organizations, e.g. socialization internally, turning into practice, and potential pitfalls.

Copyright law can be a complex and nuanced area for journalists and non-journalists alike. Questions of ownership, fair use and other intellectual property concerns are especially relevant to newsgathering as more information is found through social media and other online sources. This is the first of two classes introducing copyright law and suggesting best practices.

By attending this class, you’ll learn:
– How to identify a creative work that may be protected.
– When permission is likely needed to reproduce that work.
– Good practices to avoid infringement claims, generally.

The New England First Amendment Coalition launched a monthly educational series in 2020 featuring short, practical lessons on journalism and the First Amendment. The goal of the program — called “30 Minute Skills” — is to provide reporters and other citizens knowledge they can use immediately in newsgathering, data collection, storytelling, and other areas of journalism and First Amendment law.

The lessons are provided in a 30-minute format to accommodate the demanding schedules faced by many working in New England newsrooms. The program is free and open to the public. Registration for each lesson is required.

A lot of people pay extra attention to the news on Election Day. Are you ready to capitalize on it by being relentlessly useful and showcasing your credibility? In this webinar, Trusting News will share tips for quick-lifts you and your newsroom can still plan to do to increase trust in your coverage. You’ll leave with efficient, accessible ideas you can implement right away, with a checklist to use on Election Day.

In this free training series, Trusting News is focusing on quick, actionable steps journalists can actually DO ahead of the 2024 election to help coverage feel credible and accessible to a larger audience.

Here’s what you can expect: In each session, we’ll spend 45 minutes focusing on how journalists can take action. We’ll include perspectives from partner journalists and show examples of how they’ve implemented these strategies in their own newsrooms. Then we invite you to stick around for another 15 minutes if you have questions or want help brainstorming.

Join the University of Vermont Center for Community News Meg Little Reilly and Sarah Gamard for a discussion with faculty partners across the country about the strategies they’re using to lead student election coverage. They will discuss what’s working, what’s not, and what happens after Election Day. This is the second installation of our fall Speaker Series. Find more details and registration for future events at uvm.edu/ccn/events

Public media organizations are developing deeper partnerships with colleges and universities than ever before. In this meeting presented by the University of Vermont Center for Community News, we’ll share our challenges and successes in producing high-quality student journalism.

Google’s recent changes (the helpful content update, AI overviews) may have you scratching your head on what to do to ensure your traffic appears at the top of a search results page. In this session, we’ll look at the technical and content-focused tactics that will ensure you’re winning the local SEO game.

A free Local Media Association webinar presented by David Arkin, CEO of David Arkin Consulting.