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Transforming Local Crime Reporting Into Public Safety Journalism (2024) [1]
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Date: 2023-11
Newsroom teams accepted to this program should expect to spend about two to three hours a week from March 19 to Sept. 17, 2024, in live training sessions and peer coaching meetings on Tuesdays at 1 p.m. Eastern. (A full schedule follows.)
Full group workshops take place every other Tuesday from 1-3 p.m. Eastern.
Peer group coaching sessions fall on alternating Tuesdays for 90 minutes at 1 p.m. Eastern.
Newsroom groups must join all classes and coaching sessions.
There will be no sessions the weeks of July 4, Memorial Day or Labor Day.
March
Welcome to Transforming Crime Coverage
Welcome session: 1-3 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Welcome, introductions, and tracking mechanisms.
How to change and why (building your mission)
Session 1: 1-3 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, March 26, 2024
In most newsrooms, the process for reporting out crime stories is a habit, or a reflex. Journalists cover crime today in ways that look very similar to how they covered crime 20 years ago. And yet, those habits, over time, fold into a false narrative. We’ll look at one newsroom that made significant changes and then discuss where to start.
April
Evaluating where you are
Session 2: 1-3 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, April 9, 2024
To effectively complete a change management process, we have to understand where we are coming from and where we are going. In this session, we will give you tools to identify what markers you should measure to match up your journalism to your mission. You’ll learn to evaluate how your newsroom is currently covering crime and to track changes over time.
Refining mission and tactics, looking at other newsrooms
Session 3: 1-3 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Once we are clear on our mission, that clarity will allow us to make strategic and tactical choices. In this session, we will highlight several newsrooms such as NPR LA, Kansas City Defender and alumni of the program as guides for how your mission might impact coverage decisions.
May
Building consensus and managing change within your news organization
Session 4: 1-3 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Once you identify a clear mission, goals and strategy for your public safety coverage, you will need to get buy-in from various stakeholders to make the changes stick. This training will give you the methods and tools you need to effectively manage the change needed to fulfill your mission.
Changing your relationship with the cops
Session 5: 1-3 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, May 21, 2024
With your new aspirations for covering public safety, you will need to redefine your relationships with the law enforcement agencies that you cover. In this session we’ll look at one television market that asked their local PIOs to do things differently.
June
Getting data and making it useful
Session 6: 1-3 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, June 11, 2024
The best way to break an old habit is to replace it with something new. When it comes to public safety, one obvious new approach for journalists is to stop documenting so many individual crimes and to begin documenting trends and data.
Meaningful communication with your audience
Session 7: 1-3 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, June 25, 2024
Telling your audience what to expect will help reset what they expect from you. How are you going to do that? Related, most newsrooms have a lot of old content still online that is causing harm. We’ll look at the approach to addressing that content in one city, and then brainstorm out the implications for your news organization.
July
Trauma-informed public safety reporting
Session 8: 1-3 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Research has noted that often, victims of crimes that are covered by the media feel that they are assaulted first by the perpetrator, second by the criminal justice system, and next by the media. In this session, we’ll discuss how to report in a way that reduces trauma to victims and the community.
Special problems session: Juvenile crime and school violence
Session 9: 1-3 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, July 30, 2024
Covering juvenile crime is a topic that lends itself to sensationalism and misinformation. In this session, we’ll tap into experts who study juvenile crime to help you tell a more accurate and complete story.
August
Mapping your way to better stories
Session 10: 1-3 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024
Pulling together a better strategy for gathering community concerns about public safety requires a new pattern of gathering ideas and tracking down sources. Using newsrooms in this cohort, we’ll demonstrate a new method for identifying day-turns and more in-depth stories that can replace harmful crime stories.
Finalizing your new policy, building an implementation plan
Session 11: 1-3 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024
Putting all the pieces together. How do policies work? How do you write them and how do you implement them in a way that creates lasting change.
September
Final progress update
Session 12: 1-3 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024
Each team will report out the progress they made and their next steps.
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