No Longer a Niche Beat: What Journalists Should Know About Immigration Reporting
How to Collaborate and Maintain Flexibility in Visual Storytelling
MediaFest 25 Brings Aspiring Journalists to the Nation’s Capital
Washington-based broadcast journalists share tips for an industry moving into a social media world
‘We Can’t Ignore This Anymore’: How the U.S Press Freedom Tracker is Fighting For Journalists.
Washington-based Broadcast Journalists Share Tips for Industry in Social Media World
‘There’s No Reason Why You Can’t Do It’: How To Break Big Stories
Journalists are encouraged to seek out faith and prayer at MediaFest 25
Behind the Scoreboard: Finding the Human Story in Sports Journalism
Behind the Scenes at the Washington Post Rapid-Response Investigative Unit
Students Share Advice for Creating Podcasts and Curating a Voice
Journalists Need to Approach Antisemitism Coverage with Precision and Accuracy
Higher Education Reporters Break Down Covering College in the Crosshairs
The Legal Limits of News Influencers: What They Can and Can’t Do
Journalists are encouraged to seek out faith and prayer at MediaFest 25
Behind the Scoreboard: Finding the Human Story in Sports Journalism
Behind the Scenes at the Washington Post Rapid-Response Investigative Unit
Students Share Advice for Creating Podcasts and Curating a Voice
Journalists Need to Approach Antisemitism Coverage with Precision and Accuracy
SPJ News
October 23rd, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
Outgoing SPJ President Emily Bloch reflects on tenure
As Philadelphia Inquirer journalist Emily Bloch wraps up her term as Society of Professional Journalists’ 108th president, she urges journalists to look after each other. Bloch, who covers national trending news for the Inquirer, stepped into the role just over a year ago and tied former SPJ President Lynn Walsh as the youngest female president of the organization, at 30 years old.
October 19th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
Weak signal, strong connections define MediaFest 25
Amid dozens of panels and more than 1,000 participants milling around the three main floors of the Grant Hyatt convention center, there’s been one constant at MediaFest 25: complaints of weak Wi-Fi connectivity. Half a dozen MediaFest guests reported issues with internet connection, they told SPJ News.
October 17th, 2025 • 2024 Region 8+12 Conference: New Orleans | #SPJ/MediaFest25
Trusting News Strives to Restore Faith in Journalism
A recent Gallup polls finds trust in the media has reached a new low of 28%. It’s crucial now more than ever that journalists not only report the news, but also find new ways to connect with their fleeting audience Enter Trusting News, a company working to help repair the bridge between news consumers who are exhausted by endless streams of information and the journalists who tirelessly work on stories.
October 17th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
No Longer a Niche Beat: What Journalists Should Know About Immigration Reporting
Immigration and free speech laws are increasingly intertwined, advocate for Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) Dominic Coletti told a room of student journalists during his “Immigration 101” panel at MediaFest 25. Coletti, program officer for FIRE’s Student Press Freedom Initiative, said that while immigration statutes rarely change, “the practical considerations are evolving very quickly,” especially on college campuses where visa concerns now overlap with reporting and academic freedom.
October 17th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
How to Collaborate and Maintain Flexibility in Visual Storytelling
Multimedia reporting depends on collaboration, experimentation and clear purpose, said Courtney Kan, senior editor for visuals of the Washington Post. Strong stories begin with a strong idea, she said at a panel titled Visual Storytelling at MediaFest 25. “Visuals should enhance and not distract from the narrative.
October 17th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
Digital Security Tips for Journalists
Journalists can be at risk of hacking because of their prominent online presence. There are many ways this can happen: clicking on random emails, using multiple devices and logging into them and by stolen passwords. The most common way accounts can be hacked is through taking control of a computer system, also known as hijacking.
October 17th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
Rethinking how journalists report on homelessness
When reporting on homelessness and poverty, journalists need to carefully examine what practices they engage with to make sure they capture a fuller picture, urged Laura Moorhead an associate professor at San Francisco State University’s journalism department. She discussed how journalistic norms and fairly reporting on homelessness are sometimes at odds during her MediaFest 25 session, “Reporting community stories on homelessness and poverty.”
October 17th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
Learning to Take Up Space as Female Journalists
Three women in professional media shared their personal experience of coming up in the industry as women and women of color during the “Women’s Work” panel at MediaFest 25. They advocated for young women who are new to the industry to believe in their worth and speak up for what they deserve in the newsroom.
October 17th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
Taking AI algorithms outside the black box
As artificial intelligence and other algorithm-driven technologies rapidly advance, the public’s understanding of them is not — and that is where journalists come in. Digging into what is happening inside search engines and large language models is something anyone can do with very little tech knowledge, a six-step process Project Censored Editor-at-Large Andy Lee Roth walked student and professional journalists through during the “Beyond the black box: Using DIY algorithm audits to develop stories That Promote AI Literacy” panel at MediaFes t25.
October 17th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
Watch Out For Flying Candy: The Basics of Newsworthiness
Students revisited the basics of newsworthiness with a twist — don’t get hit by the flying candy. Tammy Merret, professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, shared tips on news reporting for beginner journalists called “Candy is dandy! What IS news?” at MediaFest 25.
October 17th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
Breaking through in podcasting with purpose
Expert and aspiring podcasters should embrace authenticity and precision as they navigate the fast-evolving industry, a New York ABC executive explained during MediaFest 25. “Authenticity is gold in podcasting,” Liz Allese, the vice president of audio, said. “Listeners are picky and they want to know you, trust you and believe what they hear is real.”
October 17th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
MediaFest 25 Brings Aspiring Journalists to the Nation’s Capital
(MediaFest 25 — hosted by the College Media Association, Associated Collegiate Press and the Society of Professional Journalists is underway in Washington, D.C. The conference is drawing hundreds of student journalists from across the country to connect, learn and celebrate their shared passion for storytelling.)
October 17th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
Washington-based broadcast journalists share tips for an industry moving into a social media world
A student print journalist in the audience at the “Broadcast is Not a Dirty Word” MediaFest 25 session admitted that broadcast is a dirty word because he never watches television news. But Cari Hernandez, the news director at WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C.,
October 17th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
Teaching Journalism Behind Bars
Journalism and incarceration are not necessarily a common pairing. Sara Vigneri, a faculty advisor to The Muhlenberg Weekly in Northern Pennsylvania who teaches at the Lehigh County Jail, believes the two belong together. She explained how teaching journalism in jails and prisons empowers people who are often silenced during a panel at MediaFest 25.
October 17th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
‘We Can’t Ignore This Anymore’: How the U.S Press Freedom Tracker is Fighting For Journalists.
Every journalist gets hate comments, but how many of them are assaulted? The U.S Press Freedom Tracker has recorded 121 incidents of assault across the United States in the past six months alone. This is one of the many statistics tracked in the U.S
October 17th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
Washington-based Broadcast Journalists Share Tips for Industry in Social Media World
At the “Broadcast is Not a Dirty Word” session for MediaFest 25*, a student journalist in the audience who traditionally writes admitted broadcast is a dirty word to him because he never finds himself sitting down and watching television. But Cari Hernandez, the news director at WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C.,
October 17th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
Teaching Journalism Behind Bars
Journalism and incarceration are not necessarily a common pairing. Sara Vigneri, a faculty advisor to The Muhlenberg Weekly in Northern Pennsylvania who teaches at the Lehigh County Jail, believes the two belong together. She explained how teaching journalism in jails and prisons empowers people who are often silenced during a panel at MediaFest 25.
October 17th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
Life is too short for boring social media
In an era where social media drives engagement and attention spans are shorter than ever, Emily Bloch, a national reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer, encouraged journalists to rethink how they approach digital storytelling during her MediaFest 25 session, “Life’s Too Short for Boring Social Media.”
October 17th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
Student Journalists Learn How to Better Cover Our Troops
When University of Alabama senior Jacob Ritondo was first contacted by the family of Hunter Whitley, he had no idea a story that would define the rest of his college career was unfolding. Whitley was a United States Marine veteran attending the University of Alabama.
October 17th, 2025 • SPJ/MediaFest25
‘There’s No Reason Why You Can’t Do It’: How To Break Big Stories
Breaking big stories requires care and attention that is crucial to the work of a journalist — but being the journalist to break a big story requires the same care and attention as the story itself. Pierre Thomas, senior justice correspondent at ABC, shared his expertise in the panel “Breaking big stories” at MediaFest 25.