2024

Welcome Session

• Summer Harlow, Associate Director, Knight Center

• Rosental Alves, ISOJ Founder and Chair, School of Journalism and Media, University of Texas at Austin

• Rachel Davis Mersey, Dean, Moody College of Communication, UT Austin

Keynote Session: Speak what you seek until you see what you’ve said: Creating a gutsy vision for local news

Chair: Emily Ramshaw, President & CEO, The 19th*

• Keynote Speaker: Wendi C. Thomas, Founding Editor and Publisher, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism

Panel: Press Forward: A half-billion-dollar philanthropic initiative to revitalize U.S. local news

Chair: Rachel Davis Mersey, Dean, Moody College of Communication, UT Austin

• Special presentation: John Palfrey, President, MacArthur Foundation

• Dale R. Anglin, Director, Press Forward

• Courtney Bengtson, Chief Strategy Officer, Wichita Foundation

• Jim Brady, Vice President of Journalism, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Panel: Using OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) and SOCMINT (Social Media Intelligence) for war coverage, investigative reporting and fact-checking

Chair: Marc Lavallee, Director, Technology, Product and Strategy/Journalism, Knight Foundation

• Meg Kelly, Senior Reporter, Visual Forensics, The Washington Post

• Eoghan Macguire, Lead Editor, Bellingcat (Netherlands)

• Marc Perkins, Investigations Editor, Europe and Asia, BBC World Service (UK)

• Haley Willis, Visual Investigations journalist, The New York Times

Workshop: New Google tools for reporting and fact-checking

• Ashley Edwards, News Partner Manager, Associations and Local Partners, Google

• Mary Nahorniak, U.S. Teaching Fellow, Google News Initiative

Workshop: Strategies to optimize revenue in local news

• Courtney Lewis, Chief of Growth Programs, Institute for Nonprofit News (INN)

• Michael Ouimette, Chief Investment Officer, American Journalism Project

• Katie Rethman, Product Strategy Lead, Newspack

Panel: AI in the newsrooms: What is working now and how it is helping to improve journalism

Chair: Trei Brundrett, Senior Advisor (Consultant), American Journalism Project

• Lilian Ferreira, General Manager of Strategy and Metrics, UOL (Brazil)

• Aimee Rinehart, Senior Product Manager AI Strategy, The Associated Press

• Andrew Rodriguez Calderón, Data Project Lead, The Marshall Project

• Zach Seward, Editorial Director for AI initiatives, The New York Times

Keynote Session: Mission Impossible: Meduza’s 10 years of experience beating Kremlin censorship

Chair: Kathleen McElroy, Professor, School of Journalism and Media, UT Austin

• Keynote Speaker: Galina Timchenko, Co-founder, CEO & Publisher, Meduza (Independent Russian media outlet operating from Latvia)

Panel: How should journalism and platforms constructively address the global challenge of polarization?

Chair: Janet Coats, Managing Director, Consortium on Trust in Media and Technology

• Richard Gingras, Vice President of News, Google Inc.

• Mónica Guzmán, Senior Fellow for Public Practice, Braver Angels

• Tina Rosenberg, Co-founder, Solutions Journalism Network

• Sonal Shah, CEO, The Texas Tribune

Panel: Social media regulation, copyright changes, government subsidies: How can new policies affect journalism?

Chair: Anya Schiffrin, Director, Technology and Media, Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs

• 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, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania

• Steve Waldman, Founder and President, Rebuild Local News

Research Breakfast: Trends in online journalism research

Chair: Vanessa D Higgins Joyce, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Texas State University

• Amy Ross Arguedas, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (UK)

• Richard Fletcher, Director of Research, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (UK)

• Gina Masullo, Associate Director, Center for Media Engagement, UT Austin

• Sue Robinson, Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, UW-Madison

• Anya Schiffrin, Director, Technology and Media, Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs

Workshop: Building an agile newsroom to succeed in a rapidly changing future

• Becca Aaronson, Chief Product Officer & Co-founder, News Product Alliance

• Upasna Gautam, Senior Product Management Leader, Digital News Platforms, CNN

• Damon Kiesow, Knight Chair in Journalism Innovation, Missouri School of Journalism

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)

• Faisal Karimi, Founder & Director, Afghanistan Institute for Research and Media Studies (Afghanistan)

• Efrat Lachter, Investigative journalist, Channel 12 News (Israel)

• Ángel Nakamura, Multimedia Journalist & Research Fellow, UT Austin (Mexico)

Panel: Influencers/content creators and journalists: What can they learn from each other?

Chair: Adeline Hulin, Head of Unit, Media and Information Literacy and Digital Competencies, UNESCO (France)

• María Paulina Baena, Journalist and Co-Creator, La Pulla (Colombia)

• Sam Ellis, Creator and Showrunner, Search Party

• Salla-Rosa Leinonen, Producer, Yle Kioski (Finland)

• Hugo Travers, Journalist and Content Creator, HugoDécrypte (France)

Panel: Editors’ perspectives: The struggle of metro newspapers to survive and thrive in the digital era

Chair: David Ryfe, Director and Professor, School of Journalism and Media, UT Austin

• Manny García, Executive Editor, Austin American-Statesman

• Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, Editor In Chief, San Francisco Chronicle

• Katrice Hardy, Vice President & Executive Editor, The Dallas Morning News

• Nicole MacIntyre, Deputy Editor, Toronto Star (Canada)

Workshop: Balancing Journalism & Tech Related Policy with the Safeguarding of a Free Press & the Public’s Open Access to News

• Amy Mitchell, Founding Executive Director, Center for News, Technology & Innovation (CNTI)

• Connie Moon Sehat, Senior Research Fellow, Center for News, Technology & Innovation (CNTI)

Workshop: Optimizing Your YouTube Strategy for 2024 Elections

• Nicolette Scott, Strategic Partner Manager, YouTube News

Keynote Session: The business of journalism — creating a sustainable model

Chair: Evan Smith, Senior Advisor, Emerson Collective

• Keynote Speaker: Meredith Kopit Levien, President & CEO, The New York Times Company

Panel: The media and election season: Are we gonna get it right this time?

Chair: Evan Smith, Senior Advisor, Emerson Collective

• Errin Haines, Editor at Large, The 19th*

• Abby Livingston, Senior Congressional Reporter, Puck

• Charlie Sykes, Contributor/Columnist, MSNBC

• Shawna Thomas, Executive Producer, CBS News’ CBS Mornings

Panel: Global Roundup Part 2: Lightning presentations about the state of journalism around the world

Chair: Dawn Garcia, Director, John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships, Stanford University

• Hannah Ajakaiye, Journalist, FactsMatterNG (Nigeria)

• Roberson Alphonse, Head of National News, le Nouvelliste (Haiti)

• Pavla Holcová, Investigative Journalist and Founder, investigace.cz (Czechia)

• Yana Lyushnevskaya, Senior Journalist and Deputy Editor in Chief, Kyiv Bureau, BBC Monitoring (Ukraine)

Panel: AI in journalism: Ethics, opportunities and pitfalls

Chair: Josephine Lukito, Assistant Professor, School of Journalism and Media, UT Austin

• Sebastián Auyanet, Audience Strategist, Impact and Newsroom Experimentation, NowThis (Uruguay)

• Nicolás Grossman, Deputy Project Director, Global Index on Responsible AI and the Global Data Barometer (Argentina)

• Andrea L. Guzman, Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Northern Illinois University

• Sil Hamilton, Researcher-in-residence, Hacks/Hackers (Canada)

Closing Remarks and Honoring Journalists José Rubén Zamora and Gustavo Gorriti

• Romina Mella, Managing Editor, IDL-Reporteros (Peru)

• José Zamora, Chief Communications and Impact Officer, EXILE