Program 2019

Watch the ISOJ video here. 

20th International Symposium on Online Journalism

A program of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at The University of Texas at Austin

Moody College of Communication’s School of Journalism

April 12-13, 2019

Venue: UT Austin Blanton Museum of Art’s auditorium
at the Smith Building, MLK Blvd. & Congress Ave.

This unique global conference would not be possible without the generous support of our partners and sponsors. 

We want to recognize and thank Knight Foundation, Chorus by Vox Media, The Dallas Morning News,  Facebook Journalism Project,
Ford Foundation, Google News Initiative, Luminate, Microsoft News, Open Society Foundations and Univision News.

 

PRE-ISOJ EVENTS:

Workshop: Strategies to Confront Online Violence: Female Journalists Cultivating Resilience & Building Community

This free workshop, held in partnership with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, the Knight Foundation and the International Women’s Media Foundation, will convene journalists, platform representatives, digital security experts, and other stakeholders to assess and respond to the risks that female journalists face online, and to support a culture of resilience and diversity in the news media. Register here.

Thursday, April 11: 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Venue: Belo Center for New Media (300 W. Dean Keeton, Austin TX 78712)

Hackathon: Building Tools to Measure and Boost Trust in News

This free Hackathon, held in partnership with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and the Texas Tribune, is designed for developers, researchers, news junkies, and more. Attendees will form cross-disciplinary teams and, after a day of collaboration and coding, present their tool or concept to a panel of judges. Registration is now closed.

Thursday, April 11: 9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

Venue: Studio 919 at The Texas Tribune (919 Congress Avenue, Sixth Floor, Austin, TX 78701)

Sponsored by Microsoft News and Walmart Tech

Reception: ISOJ Welcome Reception

Thursday, April 11, 5:30–7:30 p.m., AT&T Hotel & Conference Center Courtyard

Please RSVP.

Sponsored by Microsoft News, Chorus by Vox Media, and the John S. Knight Fellowships at Stanford University

 

ISOJ SCHEDULE:

FRIDAY, APRIL 12

7:30–8:30 a.m. — Registration and breakfast

8:30–8:45 a.m. — Opening Session

8:45–9:30 a.m. — Keynote speaker: Henry Blodget

Chair: Mike Wilson, editor, Dallas Morning News

  • Henry Blodget, co-founder, CEO, and editorial director, Insider, Inc

9:30–10:45 a.m. — Can media really rebuild trust with audiences?

Chair and presenter: Tom Rosenstiel, executive director, American Press Institute

  • Rob Bennett, editor-in-chief & general manager, global content operations, Microsoft News
  • Joy Mayer, director, Trusting News
  • Mizell Stewart, senior director of talent, partnerships and news strategy, Gannett and the USA TODAY Network
  • Charles Sykes, editor-in-chief, The Bulwark

10:45 a.m.–11 a.m. — Coffee break

11:00–12:15 p.m. — Automation and the future of fact checking

Chair and presenter: Bill Adair, Knight Professor of Journalism & Public Policy at Duke University, creator of PolitiFact

12:15–1:30 p.m. — Lunch break

A buffet-style lunch will be served at the Tejas Dining Room at the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center. Tickets are required, and you can register for Friday’s lunch here.

12:20–1:20 p.m. — Google Tools for Journalists Workshops in English and Spanish offered by Google News Initiative during ISOJ lunch break.

Seats are limited and registration is required. Lunch will be served during both workshops, which will be held simultaneously in separate rooms adjacent to the main auditorium.

Click here to register for Google Tools for Journalists in English with:

Haga clic aquí para registrarse en el Taller Herramientas de Google para periodistas en español con:

1:30–2:15 p.m. — Keynote speaker: Millie Tran

Chair: Kathleen McElroy, director and professor, School of Journalism at University of Texas at Austin

  • Millie Tran, deputy off-platform editor, New York Times

2:15–3:30 p.m. — Subscriptions and memberships: Reinventing the relationship with your audience

Chair and presenter: Emily Goligoski, research director, Membership Puzzle Project

  • Tim Griggs, digital media consultant/advisor, leader of Facebook’s Local News Subscriptions Accelerator
  • Tony Haile, CEO, Scroll
  • Jason Tuohey, senior deputy managing editor for audience engagement and digital platforms, Boston Globe
  • Amanda Zamora, chief audience officer, Texas Tribune

3:30–3:45 p.m. — Coffee Break

3:45–4:30 p.m. — RESEARCH PANEL: Digital Media and Democracy in the Americas

Chair: Eugenia Mitchelstein, associate professor and director of the communication degree, University of San Andrés, Argentina

#ISOJ Journal research paper authors:

  • Matías Dodel, Federico Comesaña & Daniel Blanc, A case of reverse- agenda setting: How 2018’s FIFA World, cup coverage reduced media reporting of Uruguayan budget bill’s yearly revision, Universidad Católica del Uruguay
  • Shearon Roberts, Mixing the Old with the New through Digital Media: Political Representation, Race, and Millennial Voices in a changing Cuba, Xavier University of Louisiana
  • Magdalena Saldana, Exposing the President: The political angle of a natural disaster in Chile, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile/Millennium Institute for Foundational Research on Data (IMFD)

Discussant: Pablo Boczkowski, professor, Department of Communication Studies, Northwestern University

4:30–5:45 p.m. — Ok, Google, Alexa and Siri: Play the news. Can you really help journalism in the podcast boom?

Chair: Debbie Hiott, general manager, KUT & KUTX

5:45–6:00 p.m. — ISOJ 20th Anniversary Panel

6:15–7:45 p.m. — ISOJ Reception at Blanton Museum of Art

Sponsored by Facebook and Knight Foundation

Venue: Rapoport Atrium of the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin

Please RSVP.

 

SATURDAY, APRIL 13

8:00–9:00 a.m. — Registration and breakfast

8:00–8:50 a.m. Vox Media meet-up: Bringing audiences closer to the news with Chorus and Coral

How do you attract new audiences while also rewarding existing ones? This meet-up will focus on identifying shared challenges publishers face in converting readers, viewers, and listeners into true fans. Participants will walk away from the conversation more aware of opportunities to build community; increase loyalty; and experiment with on and offline engagement strategies. Breakfast tacos will be served in the meet-up, which will be held in the Blanton Cafe.

Registration is required.

Chair: Trei Brundrett, chief operating officer, Vox Media & Andrew Losowsky, head of Coral by Vox Media

Or:

8:00–8:50 a.m. Microsoft Workshop: AI and next generation journalism

Learn how to speed and scale your newsroom with AI, and drive storytelling innovation through data visualization, Mixer livestreaming, and immersive content built with Minecraft, VR and AR. Seats are limited and registration is required. Breakfast tacos will be served in the workshop, which will be held in the Dell Classroom adjacent to the main auditorium.

Registration is required.

Chair: Ben Rudolph, managing director, Microsoft Modern Journalism Initiative 

Or:

8:00–8:50 a.m. Research breakfast

Seats are limited and registration is required. The breakfast will take place in the Capitol Room, adjacent to the main auditorium.

Chair: Amy Schmitz Weiss, ISOJ research chair and associate professor, School of Journalism & Media Studies, San Diego State University

  • Alfred Hermida, director and associate professor, School of Journalism, University of British Columbia (Canada)
  • Nikki Usher, associate professor of media and public affairs, George Washington University
  • John Wihbey, assistant professor of journalism and media innovation, Northeastern University

9:00–9:45 a.m. — Keynote speaker: Dave Winer

Chair: Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founder and board member, Global Voices Online

  • Dave Winer, software developer and editor of the Scripting News weblog, a pioneering developer of  weblogs, RSS, and podcasting

9:45–11:00 a.m. — The impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning on journalism

Chair and presenter: Nicholas Diakopoulos, assistant professor, Northwestern University

11:00–11:15 a.m. — Coffee Break

11:15–12:30 p.m. — Saving local news in the U.S.: Can we have sustainable online journalism in local markets?

Chair: Jennifer Preston, vice president, journalism, Knight Foundation

  • Jim Brady, CEO and founder, Spirited Media
  • Ryan Nave, editor-in-chief, Mississippi Today
  • Tasneem Raja, co-founder and executive editor, The Tyler Loop
  • John Thornton, venture capitalist, co-founder of Texas Tribune and the American Journalism Project

12:30–1:45 p.m. — Lunch Break

A buffet-style lunch will be served at the Tejas Dining Room at the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center. Tickets are required, and you can register for Saturday’s lunch here.

12:40—1:40 p.m. — Facebook Journalism Project Workshop: Instagram Story School for Editors

Seats are limited and registration is required. Lunch will be served during both workshops, which will be held simultaneously in separate rooms adjacent to the main auditorium.

Click here to register for Facebook Journalism Project Workshop in English with:

  • Danielle Noriega, strategic partner development, Global News Training, Facebook Journalism Project

Haga clic aquí para registrarse en el Taller del Facebook Journalism Project en español con:

  • Julieta Shama, strategic partner manager, South Cone/Latin America, Facebook Journalism Project

1:45–2:30 p.m. — Keynote speaker: Matt Thompson

Chair: Jay Rosen, journalism professor, New York University, and director, Membership Puzzle Project

  • Matt Thompson, editor-in-chief, Center for Investigative Reporting (and a contributing editor at The Atlantic)

2:30–3:00 p.m. — Lightning presentations

  • Selymar Colón, vice president and editor in chief, digital news, Univision Communications: From horizontal to vertical: news shows for mobile consumption
  • Felipe Estefan, investment director, Luminate: Why investing in independent media is a bet worth making
  • Andrew Gibson, front-end engineer, Texas Tribune: Highlights from the pre-ISOJ Hackathon on building tools to measure and boost trust in news
  • Nadine Hoffman, deputy director, International Women’s Media Foundation: “Strategies to confront online violence”: Five takeaways from pre-ISOJ workshop
  • Janine Warner, ICFJ Knight Fellow and co-founder of SembraMedia, and Luis Botello, deputy vice president, New Initiatives and Impact, ICFJ: Accelerating news startups in Latin America
  • Amy Schmitz Weiss, associate professor, San Diego State University: Spatial Journalism: The intersection of local news and location-based technologies

3:00–3:15 p.m. — Coffee break

3:15–4:45 p.m. — Global roundup: Journalism in the age of authoritarians, populists and polarization

Chair: Kathleen Kingsbury, deputy editorial page editor, New York Times

4:45–6:00 p.m. — Covering an online president: White House press corps in the age of Twitter

Chair: Evan Smith, co-founder and CEO, Texas Tribune

POST-ISOJ EVENTS:

12th Iberian American Colloquium on Digital Journalism

Traditional conference offered to ISOJ attendees from Latin America, Spain and Portugal.  During the Colloquium, which is conducted in Spanish, participants will discuss digital journalism in Ibero-America, including innovations in storytelling, business models, sustainability, investigation and more.
Sunday, April 14: 9:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
Venue: Belo Center for New Media, Moody College of Communication.
Click here to register.