The pre-training period from June 16-July 11 during #NAHJ2021 includes workshops and sessions led by journalists of color sharing their expertise in the newest technology and practices within newsrooms. The curriculum is divided into tracks covering a variety of essential topics to better equip attendees with the tools and resources needed to excel in their careers.
All programming will be recorded and made readily available for playback for conference registrants during the programming and for a limited time following the conference.
signature conference week programming coming soon!
The progressive curriculum at this year’s National Association of Hispanic Journalists International Training Conference and Career Fair, separates itself from regular conference programming by serving a more practical need for members with virtual hands-on training focused on skill development.
The final tracks for #NAHJ2021 and their respective track leaders are curated by conference chair Yoli Martinez.
By attending every session within a track you are eligible to receive an official certificate of completion.
Data and Visualizations
Release your fear and conquer datasets! This track will include a beginner course that dives into basic Excel usage, including pivot tables, and covers the best practices for cleaning data. We will also help you improve your reporting by instructing you on how to program in R. These data skills, along with learning basic statistics, will aid in creating advanced charts and refine how you visualize data needed to provide diligent storytelling. Attending the first data session is recommended but not required.
Sessions:
- Reporting Secret Weapon: Excel
- Unlock the reporting power of Excel. This class will teach you how to use Excel to quickly turn a seemingly boring spreadsheet into another indispensable source. We’ll go over the basics of cleaning and do some pivot tables.
- Visualizing Data for Impact
- Visualizing data has never been easier! But with great power comes great responsibility. This session reviews the essential concepts necessary to create insightful charts and what steps you’ll need for making them. Create charts and maps with Datawrapper and highlight the data fueling your story.
- Rolling your eRes, programmatically
- Are you ready to take your data skills past Excel? Level up your reporting skills with R, a free program used for data analysis. In this session, you will learn how to work with data in R and be introduced to basic statistics to bolster your reporting and storytelling. Attending ‘Reporting Secret Weapon: Excel’ is recommended but not required.
Community Engagement
Engagement journalism is about including your audience in the reporting process to better serve and mobilize communities. In this track, we will discuss how to do this effectively throughout both the pre-reporting and publication stages. You will also unlock accessible SEO expertise that is essential to improving strategy and value of your reporting. These skills and sourcing techniques will ensure your reporting is inclusive for the communities you serve to create more powerful journalism.
Sessions:
- Creating Journalism That’s Useful to the Communities We’re Covering
- When you’re directly affected by an issue, you often know a lot about it. You can have information, leads and stories. Engagement reporting [at ProPublica] is about giving a place to share that kind of information. Our job is about connecting with, mobilizing and including in our reporting process communities who have information that becomes more powerful when it’s all put together. In this workshop, we will cover the reporting, the people and the methods of engagement journalism.
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- Why SEO is Important for Every Content Creator
- One of the most important methods of driving traffic for publishers globally is search engine optimization. But while brands understand the importance of SEO, many reporters have yet to add it to their toolkit in the same way they have with social media and video recording. This session will not only help you to understand why SEO is so important at your organization, but also how you can use SEO to make you a better reporter and understand your beat not just locally but globally.
- Meeting Your Audience Where They’re At
- In this session, Adriana Gallardo (ProPublica) and Claudio Cabrera (The New York Times) will cover ways to reach your audience in two critical sages: pre-reporting and publication. Adriana will share sourcing techniques to make journalism that’s more inclusive of the communities we cover. Claudio will break down why SEO is important for every content creator.
Investigative Reporting
The Investigative Reporting track’s goal is to provide skills useful to report investigative and watchdog stories, both long-term projects and articles with a quicker turnaround. We will talk about picking a story, choosing the framing, designing the reporting, obtaining the records and evidence that you need to make the story hard hitting –including public records requests and data— and writing a compelling story.
Sessions:
- Investigative Reporting on Any Beat
- In this session we will discuss how to pitch, frame and report investigative projects and accountability stories. You will learn about public records requests strategies, how to have a documents and data mindset and how to bulletproof stories that rely mostly on sources.
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- Online Tools for Investigations
- In this training we will tell you about online tools at the tip of your fingers that can make it easier to report investigations. We will go over how to obtain corporate records, look into campaign donations, background people and nonprofits, find sources and use tools to map your data, or check whether an image shows what you are told it does.
- Create Impact: How to Package an Investigation
- You have all your reporting for a hard-hitting investigation. Now what? Writing a long-form or series, or producing a segment for a long-term project is very different from reporting a daily story. In this session we will provide tips on how to package a compelling print, online or TV story that people will want to stay with and will feel outraged about.
Rising into Leadership
How to be a strong newsroom manager: We will help Latino journalists become stronger managers by teaching them how to establish authority and embrace their talent; how to hold tough conversations and manage for high performance with empathy and candor; and how to get the support they need to grow in their careers. Latino journalists will leave this training with renewed passion and confidence in their work and professional future.
Sessions:
- How to establish authority and embrace your ideas and experience
- Everyone experiences imposter syndrome at times, whether you are a new manager, someone recently promoted into a new role or a longterm manager confronting new challenges. These insecurities can be even more pronounced when you are one of only a few leaders of color in a newsroom. This session will discuss how to find your voice, command respect from your team and speak up for your ideas in the newsroom.
- How to guide your own career as a manager
- As a manager, you have to help manage the careers of others while still tending to your own. This session will review best tips for advocating for yourself, building allies and rising to senior levels of management in an industry where few Latinos make it to the top.
- How to manage up and sideways
- This session will review how to get buy-in from your manager and coworkers through effective communication.
- How to be a caring, results-orientated manager
- This session will review the best strategies for managing for success while also remaining a caring, empathetic coworker. Our team will review how to hold tough conversations when needed and guide team members while remaining honest, supportive and compassionate.
Strategic Social Media
NAHJ’s Strategic Social Media track is going to distill relevant and important aspects of using social media as a journalist with an eye towards evaluating what it should and shouldn’t mean to you as we’ve all felt the stress of a pandemic, political unrest and the racial reckoning in society and in our newsrooms. We’ll review important tools and uses for social media, talk about pitfalls and “worst” practices and, most importantly, talk about a good engagement philosophy that should inform your relationship to social media going forward.
Sessions:
- Why an (engagement) mindset matters more than content
- Audience engagement work can get overshadowed by analytics and not in a good way. Metrics and analytics can be used to inform decisions, but those decisions should ultimately be driven by values and a mission to build a relationship with those who are impacted and use your reporting. In this session, we’ll break down how that works in a newsroom, and how you can support that whether or not you’re on a social or digital team.
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- Reevaluating social media after 2020: What is it good for?
- A once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, protests against racism and police brutality, a tumultuous presidential election and the storming of the U.S. Capitol are all events that have been exacerbated or fueled by social media. On top of this, journalists can also lack clarity about social media’s role in their work, and, at worst, have to deal with harassment and toxicity. Learn what emerging practices and frameworks might help as we reimagine a healthier relationship to social platforms going forward.
Reporting with Visuals
Sponsored by Meredith Corporation
Visual journalists document history for the world to see as it happens - and their role has become more vital and important than ever, in a time when images are a tool of accountability. The Reporting with Visuals track is designed to provide photo and video journalists with practical and theoretical skills for working in the field. Panelists and course leaders will discuss topics ranging from equipment, editing, safety and working with trauma and vulnerable communities.
Sessions:
- PART I: Create a compelling visual story
- There’s no secret formula, but we’ll walk you through effective storytelling techniques. The first session in a two-part course will challenge you to find stories—and new ways to tell them—everywhere. Hear from two visual journalists about story selection, creative techniques and how to make your visuals stand out. At the end of the session you will be given a visual assignment to complete before we meet again.
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- What’s in my bag?
- A look at essential field equipment and gadgets you didn’t know you needed. In this show-and-tell session you’ll see first-hand the kit of three visual journalists who spend most of their time out in the field and learn about how their equipment helps them tell stories. From photographing wild fires in California to filming documentaries about immigration to chronicling the pandemic’s toll in communities, this is the equipment our panelists deem essential.
- PART II: Create a compelling visual story?
- After learning the basics in part I, you’ll return two weeks later to showcase your visual assignment and receive feedback from the presenters and fellow classmates. Two visual stories produced in the session will be published online in “palabra.,�? NAHJ’s growing multimedia platform. So, ¡échale ganas!
- Filing Photos and Video from the Field in Record Time
- Become an efficient journalist when covering breaking news and fast deadlines. Time is of the essence in news. In this session, hear from visual journalists who often have to turn around stories in record time. How do they make it happen? How do they handle the pressure? Learn tips and tricks but also hear raw testimonials of what it’s like to work at full speed, especially in difficult situations.
Trece periodistas de países latinoamericanos y del Caribe, reconocidos por la calidad de su trabajo y el impacto de sus proyectos, serán los encargados de la primera La Red Series. Este será un espacio, en español, de intercambio de experiencias entre periodistas latinoamericanos y latinos en EEUU; de oportunidades de innovación narrativa; de creación y trabajo colectivo para combatir la desinformación y la mirada miope; y sobre todo, para pensar un periodismo en red, diverso, colaborativo y transcultural a lo largo de las Américas y el Caribe.
Las trampas de la latinidad
¿De qué manera podemos como periodistas contar la diversidad de la experiencia latina en los Estados Unidos sin homogeneizarla y dignificando lo específico y lo unificador de esta comunidad migrante? ¿Cuáles son los problemas puntuales con las narrativas en torno a las culturas latinas en los Estados Unidos? Como periodistas latinxs, ¿de qué manera podemos transformar el modo en que se narran nuestras comunidades para así trascender estereotipos que producen mayor marginalidad? Estas son algunas de las preguntas que se abordarán en esta charla y diálogo con la escritora puertorriqueña Ana Teresa Toro.
De qué hablamos cuándo hablamos de drogas
América Latina es la región más violenta del mundo, la mano dura y la política de drogas ha afectado prácticamente a todos los países, pero hablar de drogas es también hablar de ciencia, historia, y conexiones sociales. En esta clase, aprenderás cómo cubrir estos temas desde una perspectiva regional, más allá de las coyunturas.
La importancia de nombrar
En esta sesión, Carol Pires hablará sobre cómo cubrir al poder y a los poderosos. Sobre la importancia de los detalles. Sobre los silencios que cuentan más que palabras. Y, más que todo, sobre la responsabilidad de nombrar los riesgos de la democracia.
Escribir sobre los demás, escribir sobre uno mismo
¿Cómo descubrir cuál es la historia y cuál es el asunto humano que quiero desarrollar en una crónica? ¿Cómo acercarnos a esa realidad para contarla?
Periodismo mutante: experimentos con públicos que conversan
Mutante compartirá con los asistentes los principales esquemas conceptuales y estratégicos que dieron vida a su visión de periodismo participativo y periodismo conversacional, así como algunas herramientas desarrolladas para imaginar e implementar ejercicios de interacción periodística con el público.
Contar lo que el poder esconde
En Cuba, el periodista que no labore en los medios de comunicación del partido comunista, único partido del país, no está legalmente autorizado a ejercer la profesión. En este contexto, los que lo hacen desde esa supuesta “ilegalidad�? son asumidos por el gobierno como enemigos públicos y, por ello, son reprimidos, acosados y encarcelados. Entonces: ¿Cómo contar un país donde no hay libertad de prensa? ¿Cómo contar las historias que el poder no quiere que se cuenten?
La frontera no es solo eso que dicen
La frontera de Estados Unidos con México -las fronteras en general- son decenas de lugares, todos distintos; miles de personajes, todos distintos; infinitas historias sobre distintos temas. Entonces, por qué casi siempre hablamos de las mismas ciudades y con los mismos enfoques? Al ser trazos geográficos donde abundan lugares icónicos, las fronteras suelen contarse desde el mismo punto de vista: Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, el río Bravo. Suelen perseguirse las mismas historias. No se trata de olvidar lo importante o lo urgente, no se trata de dejar de contar la migración, de ignorar el narco y el muro. Se trata de contar todo esto desde enfoques distintos, de seguir otros guiones de investigación diferentes a los que se repiten una y otra vez en los medios. En esta sesión discutiremos cómo ver una frontera desde otros ángulos, cómo explorar los mismos temas desde miradas distintas y, sobretodo, cómo trascender al estereotipo, tan abundante en las fronteras.
Colaboración periodística con enfoque hemisférico, la experiencia de CONNECTAS
Durante cerca de una década, esta plataforma se ha convertido en una referencia regional en la investigación periodística y el análisis, gracias a su apuesta por el trabajo colectivo con su vibrante y activa comunidad de periodistas en 20 países. Su metodología de trabaja ha permitido la realización de investigaciones regionales como #Petrofraude o #ChavismoINC , historias locales de alto impacto como La Casa Blanca de Enrique Peña Nieto, Un Cacique del Agua en el Paraíso Maya o El Caudillo de la Justicia Mexicana.
Cruzar fronteras para investigar la resistencia
Un gran tema entre manos, ahora ¿cómo hacer que 15 periodistas de 10 países que nunca han investigado juntos, trabajen coordinadamente para sacar adelante un proyecto periodístico de investigación? El sistema de trabajo utilizado para crear Tierra de Resistentes mezcló herramientas básicas y complejas con los métodos individuales de trabajo de reporteros de investigación, mucha concertación y suma de esfuerzos. En un paso a paso recorreremos ese sistema, desde la fórmula para identificar el foco del proyecto, el perfil de los protagonistas, los contenidos de la base de datos, la elaboración de cronogramas, dónde encontrar las historias hasta la interpretación de la base de datos.
High-impact photojournalism: From breaking news to in-depth, underreported stories
Sponsored by the Pulitzer Center
Five award-winning journalists will share skills and insights that have helped them pursue impactful stories on the environment, immigration, gender equality, and more. If you are interested in sharpening your photography, documentary production, and data reporting skills, please sign up for this series hosted by the Pulitzer Center.
Photojournalism has multiple expressions and, at times, the pace of daily coverage prevents us from taking a leap toward in-depth stories, which require a different approach. During the workshop, we will share methodologies that allow us to shift from breaking news both from the narrative approach and from the visual language. What are the ethical, creative and methodological challenges of long-term photojournalism? What are its possibilities and its limits? How do we produce projects like these in the pandemic context? We will invite participants to reflect on a project idea, and we will provide case studies to guide the conversation.
Anita Pouchard Serra
Freelance Photojournalist
Satellite data & other digital tools for environmental reporting
Sponsored by the Pulitzer Center
Two leading geo journalists will share lessons learned from using remote sensing techniques and tools for environmental reporting during the pandemic. Attendees will explore examples of
how journalists are using advances in digital technology and satellite imagery for data/map- based investigations to report deforestation and other illegal activities, and how these tools and
techniques might complement future investigations once public health concerns have ceased.
Gustavo Faleiros
Environment Investigations Editor,
Pulitzer Center
Laura Kurtzberg
Professor,
Florida International University
Short Docs: from conception to field reporting
Sponsored by the Pulitzer Center
Five award-winning journalists will share skills and insights that have helped them pursue impactful stories on the environment, immigration, gender equality, and more. If you are interested in sharpening your photography, documentary production, and data reporting skills, please sign up for this series hosted by the Pulitzer Center.
How do we identify the most powerful narrative approach for a documentary? How do we balance pre-production decisions with field events that send us in new directions? PBS special
correspondent Nadja Drost and filmmaker Bruno Federico will share lessons they have learned producing high-impact short documentaries on complex topics. They will focus on the pre-
production and field reporting phases of the documentary filmmaking process, using case studies to provide practical advice on choosing a narrative arc, filming scenes, and adjusting to
shifting situations in the field.
Nadja Drost
Journalist,
PBS NewsHour
Bruno Federico
Filmmaker/Cinematographer
Google News Initiative: Fundamental Tools For Journalists
NAHJ has joined forces with Google News Initiative to train journalists who work for the Spanish media market or currently report in Spanish through technological innovation. The 2020 election cycle and Jan. 6 Capitol riot crystalized the importance of combatting false stories and misinformation. In an era when the public is increasingly hostile toward media, the challenge goes beyond simply getting details correct. As such it is important to evolve. Tech tools can expedite and increase verification capabilities. For Spanish-language journalists having access to these trainings can be time consuming and expensive. Therefore, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists has teamed up with Google’s News Initiative to bring Spanish-language journalists up to speed in the latest available tools to build capacity in newsrooms at scale.
