Social media policies are not the real issue

Gabe Schneider, Kendra Pierre-Louis, Sisi Wei and Karen K. Ho in a discussion around how newsrooms can work to become anti-racist starting with their social media policies and how they enforce them. Reporters of color being punished and fired for tweets is a symptom of the larger problem that newsrooms need to tackle head on. … Continued

How to become a ‘harmless linker’ in three easy steps

You’ll probably also become a big fan of the Wayback Machine Mis- and dis-information are spread a number of ways and the thought of trying to free the news ecosystem of misleading, disingenuous and fraudulent news items can be overwhelming and disillusioning. But former RJI Fellow Barrett Golding is advocating one small step for mankind … Continued

Improving negotiation skills to fight inequality in newsrooms

A toolkit for Latina journalists and training sessions to reduce the pay gap Discrimination against Latino journalists in the United States affects the environment of freedom of expression and access to information for the Hispanic communities they frequently report on and write about. This is the main conclusion of the research conducted by Fundamedios in … Continued

Descript video: Tips and tricks

Innovation in Focus is a series exploring emerging technology and methods of storytelling for newsrooms worldwide. We interview experts, test tools and provide our findings on a different topic each month. This month I tested Descript’s new video editing software to create this video about a local maker and his business. Here are five tips … Continued

Narrated articles: Q&A with Allyson Daniels

This month for Innovation in Focus, I interviewed Allyson Daniels to learn more about how we can increase accessibility in journalism. Daniels is a quality editor for the Bleacher Report.  Swanson: Could you give a brief summary of the work you do? Daniels: I’m a quality editor for digital sports media network Bleacher Report, meaning … Continued

Narrated article: Winter tips to stay safe and warm

This month for Innovation in Focus we tested various tools and platforms to provide narration for articles to make them more accessible. Listen to this article narrated: https://soundcloud.com/pili-swanson/narrated-article Here are some tips to staying healthy, safe and warm this winter season as the temperatures begin to drop. The CDC has COVID-19 tips for holiday gatherings, … Continued

Instagram Reels: Q&A with Anthony Quintano

For Innovation in Focus this month I experimented with Instagram Reels and spoke with social media manager Anthony Quintano about Instagram Reels and how it compares to TikTok so far. He is currently a manager of visual storytelling and has trained journalists on how to use social media since 2010 at NBC, Recode and Honolulu Civil Beat.   … Continued

Instagram Reels: Tips and tricks

Here are five tips for creating Instagram Reels. 1. Know where to post the Reel In order for the posts to get viewed by your followers you must post the Reel to your feed as well as posting it to Reels. There is also the option to post a Reel to your story, but then the reel … Continued