NAHJ announces curriculum for upcoming #NAHJ2021 virtual conference

FOR RELEASE MAY 24, 2021

NAHJ announces curriculum for upcoming #NAHJ2021 virtual conference

Washington D.C. - The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) is excited to announce the curriculum for #NAHJ2021, the leading International Training Conference and Career Fair to help promote and support #MoreLatinosInNews. Taking place from June 16 to July 17, #NAHJ2021 will offer different tracks for participants to choose from, each with multiple sessions and led by industry experts. Attendees will be able to receive a certificate of completion for their chosen track.

These tracks include:

• Community Engagement, led by Claudio E. Cabrera, Deputy Audience Director at The New York Times, and Adriana Gallardo, Engagement Reporter at ProPublica

  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.

• Data and Visualizations, led by Emmanuel Martinez, Data Reporter at The MarkUp, Luis Melgar, Graphics Editor at The Wall Street Journal, and Cecilia Reyes, Investigative Reporter at Chicago Tribune

  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.

• Investigative Reporting, led by María Pérez, Investigative Reporter at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Brenda Medina, Bilingual Reporter at International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

  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.

• Rising into Leadership, led by Cristina Silva, Enterprise Editor at USA TODAY, Migdalia Figueroa, President and General Manager at Telemundo 31 / WTMO, and Brian De Los Santos, Editor at LAist

  How to be a strong newsroom manager: This track 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.

• Strategic Social Media, led by John Hernandez, Project and Community Manager at American Press Institute, and Helga Salinas, Audience Engagement Editor at Capital Public Radio

  The Strategic Social Media track will 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.

• Reporting with Visuals, led by Miguel Gutierrez, Photographer/Photo Editor at The Texas Tribune, Angélica M. Casas, Visual Journalist at BBC World

  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.

Journalists of all backgrounds will benefit from these specialized tracks to learn new skills, gain confidence, and help advance their careers. There are hardship scholarships available to make this an accessible event to more journalists. NAHJ invites you to register now for the conference by visiting nahj2021.org. For all official updates, follow NAHJ on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for more conference updates by using the #NAHJ2021 hashtag to help raise awareness of the resources NAHJ has made available to Latino journalists.