22nd 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 26-30, 2021

Thanks to our sponsors:

 

ISOJ SCHEDULE:

All times are U.S. Central, GMT/UTC -5

This schedule is subject to change. Come back to this page for updates.

Monday, April 26, 2021 

10:00 – 10:05 a.m. — Welcoming session

• Rosental C. Alves, ISOJ and Knight Center founder and chair, Moody College of Communication, School of Journalism & Media
• Jay Bernhardt, dean, Moody College of Communication
• Amy Schmitz Weiss, ISOJ Research Chair, San Diego State University

 

10:05 – 11:00 a.m. — Keynote session

• Keynote speaker: A.G. Sulzberger, chairman & publisher, The New York Times 

• Chair: Alberto Ibargüen, president & CEO, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation 

 

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. — Workshop: Lessons from the Global South: How innovation has helped newsrooms around the world

• Ludovic Blecher, head of DNI Innovation Fund, Google
• Styli Charalambous, CEO, The Daily Maverick (South Africa)
• Tai Nalon, co-founder, Aos Fatos (Brazil)
• John-Allan Namu, CEO, Africa Uncensored (Kenya)
• Maria Li, chief operating officer, Tech in Asia (Singapore)
• Innbal Menashri, data project manager, Haaretz (Israel)

 

1:00 – 2:15 p.m. — Collaborative journalism networks: the lone wolf investigative reporter joins regional & global packs

• Chair and presenter: Marina Walker Guevara, executive editor, Pulitzer Center 
• Scilla Alecci, reporter and coordinator of European & Asian partners, ICIJ (Italy) 
• Carlos Eduardo Huertas, founder & director, CONNECTAS (Latin American network) (Colombia)
• Alia Ibrahim, founder and chairman, Daraj, (Lebanon) 
• Purity Mukami, reporter, Finance Uncovered (UK) & The Elephant (Kenya) 

 

4:00 – 5:15 p.m. — Community management and audience engagement: Turning the news into a conversation

• Chair and presenter: Irving Washington, executive director & CEO, Online News Association (ONA)
• Ashley Alvarado, director of community engagement, Southern California Public Radio (KPCC + LAist) 
• Bobby Blanchard, assistant director for audience, The Texas Tribune  
• Nisha Chittal, director of audience and engagement, Vox Media 
• Darryl Holliday, news lab director and co-founder, City Bureau 
• Annie Z. Yu, director of engagement, Politico 

 

5:30 – 7:00 p.m. —Welcome Party/ Happy Hour

Sponsored by the John S. Knight Fellowships at Stanford University

Bring your own drink and finger food, and join ISOJers from around the world during this online social event. Find your friends and colleagues, make new friends, and mingle and network as you would have done if ISOJ were in person this year!

 

Tuesday, April 27, 2021 

10:00 – 11:00 a.m. — Keynote session

• Keynote speaker: Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief, The Guardian

• Chair: Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief, San Francisco Chronicle

 

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. — Workshop: How to develop secure communication with sources and a drop box for whistleblowers

• Harlo Holmes, Freedom of the Press Foundation

 

1:00 – 2:15 p.m. — Facing the ‘infodemic:’ How journalists covering COVID-19 can fight mis/disinformation

• Chair and presenter: Maryn McKenna, journalist, author and senior fellow at Emory University’s Center for the Study of Human Health 
• Joan Donovan, research director, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics & Public Policy at Harvard University 
• Heidi Larson, director, The Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (U.K.)
• Jessica Malaty Rivera, science communication lead, The COVID Tracking Project
• Brandy Zadrozny, investigative and features reporter, NBC News

 

4:00 – 5:15 p.m. — #ISOJ Journal – Peer Reviewed Research Panel 1:
Capturing journalism’s evolution: From algorithms to misinformation

• Chair and presenter: Amy Schmitz Weiss, San Diego State University, ISOJ Research Chair & #ISOJ Journal co-editor
• Silvia DalBen and Amanda Chevtchouk Jurno, Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil) More than code: The complex network that involves journalism production in five Brazilian robot initiatives.
• Amber Hinsley, Texas State University. Cued up: How audience demographics influence reliance on news cues, confirmation bias and confidence in identifying misinformation.
• Burton Speakman, Kennesaw State University, and Marcus Funk, Sam Houston State University. What’s on your page, on your pa-a-a-ge: Zombie content and paywall policies in American community newspapers, 2015-2020.

 

Wednesday, April 28, 2021 

10:00 – 11:00 a.m. — Keynote session: Reinventing online political coverage

• Keynote Speakers: Anna Palmer & Jake Sherman, co-founders, Punchbowl News

• Chair: Evan Smith, CEO & co-founder, The Texas Tribune

 

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. — Workshop: Going beyond advanced search: Google tools for journalists

• Juan Manuel Lucero, Google News Lab (workshop en español)
• Mary Nahorniak, Google News Initiative Teaching Fellow (workshop in English)

 

1:00 – 2:15 p.m. — Online violence against women journalists: How to combat this global scourge?

• Chair and presenter: Elisa Lees Muñoz, executive-director, IWMF
• Ferial Haffajee, associate editor, Daily Maverick (South Africa)
• Gisela Pérez de Acha, reporter at the Investigative Reporting Program, UC Berkeley 
• Julie Posetti, global director of research, ICFJ 
• Ela Stapley, digital security advisor and founder of Siskin Labs (U.K.)

 

4:00 – 5:15 p.m. — Immersive journalism: How photogrammetry, VR and AR are adding new dimensions to storytelling

• Chair and presenter: Robert Hernandez, professor of professional practice, University of Southern California
• Mint Boonyapanachoti, creative technologist, The New York Times
• Thomas Flynn, cultural heritage lead, Sketchfab (U.K.)
• Retha Hill, professor of practice & director of the New Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab, Arizona State University
• Ben Kreimer, independent journalism technologist
• Elite Truong, director of strategic initiatives, The Washington Post

 

Thursday, April 29, 2021 

10:00 – 11:00 a.m. — Keynote session: Reimagining news for Black Americans: Paving a path toward equity in journalism

• Keynote speaker: Lauren Williams & Akoto Ofori-Atta, co-founders, Capital B 

• Chair: Amanda Zamora, co founder & publisher, The 19th*

 

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. — Workshop: Covering climate change: Best practices for how to localize a planet-sized story

• Frank Mungeam, chief innovation officer, Local Media Association, lead, LMA Covering Climate Collaborative
• Bernadette Woods Placky, program director, Climate Matters
• Amal Ahmed, reporter, Texas Observer
• Donovan Quintero, reporter, Navajo Times
• Mark Schleifstein, reporter, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

 

1:00 – 2:30 p.m. — It’s not the old op-ed page anymore: The growth of opinion in online journalism

• Chair and presenter: Katie Kingsbury, opinion editor, The New York Times
• Karen Attiah, global opinions editor, The Washington Post
• Sewell Chan, editorial page editor, The Los Angeles Times
• Matthew Yglesias, writer and editor, Slow Boring

 

4:00 – 5:15 p.m. — Cracking the code for the new local news through networking and collaboration

• Chair and presenter: Karen Rundlet, director of journalism program, Knight Foundation 
• Sarabeth Berman, CEO, American Journalism Project (AJP)
• Sue Cross, executive director and CEO, Institute for Nonprofit News (INN)
• Emilee Gilpin, managing editor, Indiginews (Canada)
• Lisa Heyamoto, GNI Startups Lab Senior Program Manager, LION Publishers
• Mazin Sidahmed, co-executive director, Documented

 

Friday, April 30, 2021 

10:00 – 11:00 a.m. — Keynote session

• Keynote speaker: Marty Baron, former executive editor, The Washington Post
  

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

 

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. — Workshop: How to work towards a news ecosystem that cleanly separates news from opinion

• Subramaniam (Subbu) Vincent, director of journalism and media ethics program, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University
• Patricia Lopez, journalist and editorial writer, The Star Tribune
• Kate Harloe, journalist and strategist, NewsQ
• Connie Moon Sehat, director, News Quality Initiative, senior fellow, World Economic Forum

 

1:00 –2:15 p.m. — Race and equity in the news: Reporting in service of communities and with the URL (uplift, respect and love) lens

• Chair and presenter:  Sara Lomax-Reese, co-founder, URL Media, president & CEO, WURD Radio 
• Cierra Hinton, executive director & publisher, Scalawag
• Mitra Kalita, co-founder URL Media, founder, EpicenterNYC 
• Nancy San Martin, freelance journalist, contributor at palabra. NAHJ
• Macollvie J. Neel, managing editor, The Haitian Times

 

4:00 – 5:15 p.m. — #ISOJ Journal – Peer Reviewed Research Panel 2:
Challenging the status quo: New pathways to understanding news audiences today

• Chair and presenter: Amy Schmitz Weiss, San Diego State University, ISOJ Research Chair & #ISOJ Journal co-editor
• Mark Poepsel, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Thematic analysis of journalism engagement in practice
• Jessica Retis, University of Arizona, and Lourdes M. Cueva Chacón, San Diego State University. Mapping digital native U.S. Latinx news: Beyond geographical boundaries, language barriers, and hyper-fragmentation of audiences
• Ryan Wallace, University of Texas at Austin. The language of online news: How science and health reporting in English impacts Latinx Audiences

Special announcement: ISOJ 2021 Top Research Paper Award

 

5:30 – 7:00 p.m. — Farewell Party/ Happy Hour

Bring your own drink and finger food, and join ISOJers from around the world during this online social event, which will close out ISOJ. Find your friends and colleagues, make new friends, and mingle and network as you would have done if ISOJ were in person this year!