Town Hall
Loews Hollywood Hotel, Hollywood, CA
July 9, 2024
Election 2024: Empowering Hispanic Voters as AI Amplifies Misinformation
Sponsored by Univision
The NAHJ 40th Anniversary Conference & Expo will kick off with a town hall meeting on July 9, which is open to the public! The town hall meeting will be held at the Hollywood Ballroom located at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, 1755 Highland Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90028. The event will begin promptly at 6 p.m. PST. Attendees will also be able to register to vote on-site during the town hall meeting.
To RSVP for the event, click here.
| TIME | DESCRIPTION |
| 6:00 PM | The Hispanic population, comprising a significant and diverse segment of the electorate, faces distinct barriers to accessing accurate information and navigating the digital landscape. This session explores how misinformation campaigns target Hispanic communities through social media platforms, messaging apps, and other digital channels, often exploiting language and cultural nuances. We’ll show the impact of misinformation and the innovative techniques news organizations and community groups are using to counter it. |
Featured Speakers
Elian Zidan, co-anchor of Univision Edicion Nocturna will serve as the moderator for this town hall. The panelists include Laura Zommer, CEO of Factchequeado; Juan Espinoza, Senior Policy Advisor on Civil Rights, UNIDOS.us; Alfredo Corchado, executive editor of PUENTE News; and Christian Arana, VP Civic Power and Policy, Latino Community Foundation.
Frequently Asked Questions
We have worked diligently to curate a robust conference curriculum that includes an array of sessions in both English and Spanish. While not all sessions are offered in both languages, we encourage attendees to explore the program schedule and find what workshops & trainings best suite their interests. Sessions in Spanish will be indicated by their title.
Many of our speakers & trainers are being finalized and are subject to change at any time. A full look at session descriptions, instructors, and panelists will be shared in our 2024 Conference App, which will be announced at a later date.
No, our Tuesday workshop & half-day sessions are only open to registered conference attendees. Single-day registrations will only give access to workshops & trainings on your specific day of attendance.
Other sponsored sessions put together by our conference partners may require pre-registration or an invitation prior to the event.
There may be an occupancy limit to certain sessions. All general NAHJ workshops & training sessions operate on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Each year, NAHJ is tasked with creating an all-new conference curriculum with engaging workshops and panel discussions surrounding the future of journalism and the media landscape. This year, we welcomed the return of track leaders to guide programming efforts. NAHJ received over 100 submissions following our call for sessions announcement. While your exact session may not have been chosen this year, we hope to offer a similar/alternative session within our 2024 conference curriculum.
Don’t see the session you wanted in our schedule? We want to make sure we are creating the best conferences possible for our members. To share your feedback with us, click here.
NAHJ will also share a separate survey post-conference to allow attendees to share their feedback on sessions they took part in.
Please take a moment to read the code of conduct.
| TIME | OPTION 1 — ALL-DAY CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT JUSTICE COVERAGE WORKSHOP |
| 9:00 AM-10:00 AM | Climate and Environment Justice Coverage Training Part 1: Climate 101 & Covering Science |
| 10:15 AM-12:15 PM | Climate and Environment Justice Coverage Training Part 2: The Data Frame of Mind 101 & Covering Science |
| 12:30 PM-1:30 PM | Climate and Environment Justice Coverage Training Part 3: Building Your Brand on the Environmental Beat: How to Pitch Like a Pro |
| 1:45 PM-3:45 PM | Climate and Environment Justice Coverage Training Part 4: Mapping and Data Visualization with New York Times Editors |
| 4:00 PM-5:00 PM | Climate and Environment Justice Coverage Training Part 5: Working Together: How Reporting Collaborations Can Benefit Reporters, Newsrooms and Communities Alike |
Note: This will be an all-day event with lunch included.
FULL-DAY SESSION DESCRIPTIONS
9:00 am–10:00 am — Climate and Environment Justice Coverage Training Part 1: Climate 101 & Covering Science
PENDING DESCRIPTION
Speakers: Tony Barboza, Editorial Writer, Los Angeles Times | Alejandra Borunda, Climate & Environmental Reporter, NPR
10:15 am–12:15 pm — Climate and Environment Justice Coverage Training Part 2: The Data Frame of Mind
We’ll dissect some great examples of data-driven environmental justice reporting from recent years, discussing how the stories were framed and reported, the sources of data used, and the skills involved. We’ll also review some useful sources of data for environmental justice reporting and resources for technical training.
Speakers: Mario Ariza, Investigative Reporter, Floodlight News | Peter Aldhous, University of California, Santa Cruz
12:30 pm–1:30 pm — Climate and Environment Justice Coverage Training Part 3: Building Your Brand on the Environmental Beat: How to Pitch Like a Pro
PENDING DESCRIPTION
Moderator: Louis Saharan, Retired Environmental Reporter, Los Angeles Times
Speakers: Angela Marie Hutchinson, Former Director, Engagement Health Sciences | Dorandy Pineda, Environmental Reporter, AP
1:45 pm–3:45 pm — Climate and Environment Justice Coverage Training Part 4: Mapping and Data Visualization with New York Times Editors
Come learn about great sources of climate and weather data, free tools you can use to show that data to your audience. We’ll go over our favorites and share the process for making a few stories you can do in your own newsroom, such as mapping demographic data with environmental issues and seeing floods from space. At the end, we’ll talk about your projects — so bring your data, mapping and graphics questions and ideas.
Speakers: Marco Hernandez, Graphics Editor, The New York Times | John Keefe, Weather Data Editor, The New York Times
4:00 pm–5:00 pm — Climate and Environment Justice Coverage Training Part 5: Working Together: How Reporting Collaborations Can Benefit Reporters, Newsrooms and Communities Alike
Collaboration between news organizations can offer creative solutions to environmental reporting challenges and community engagement. This session will highlight two groundbreaking projects: one a bilingual, multi-newsroom investigation of how petrochemical pollution disproportionately impacts Latino communities near Houston, revealing failures in the state’s air monitoring system. The other, an innovative partnership investigating homelessness and housing affordability and its intersections with environmental justice. Attendees will gain an appreciation for how teaming up across newsrooms can inspire better journalism, strengthen reporters’ skills and boost community engagement. They’ll leave with a virtual toolkit guiding them through successful collaborations that are responsive to community concerns.
Speakers: Autumn Spanne, Manager of Newsletters & Bilingual Content, Environmental Health Sciences | Matt Thompson, Editor, The New York Times Headway | Valeria Fernandez, Managing Editor, Palabra
| TIME | OPTION 2 — HALF-DAY SESSIONS (MULTIPLE ROOMS) |
| 9:00 PM-12:00 PM | Introducción al periodismo de datos |
| 12:00 PM-1:30 PM | TBD |
| 1:30 PM-4:30 PM | Introduction to data journalism |
| 1:30 PM-4:30 PM | Storytelling with Google News Tools and Beyond |
| 1:30 PM-4:30 PM | Be the Crowbar: Strategies for Prying Data from Reluctant Officials’ Grubbies |
HALF-DAY SESSION DESCRIPTIONS
9:00 am-12:00 pm — Introducción al periodismo de datos
Tres horas de taller sobre los fundamentos del análisis de datos.
Trainer: Laura Moscoso, Training director, Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE)
12:00 pm-1:30 pm — TBA
1:30 pm-4:30 pm — Introduction to data journalism
A three-hour deep dive into the basics of data analysis.
Trainer: Laura Moscoso, Training director, Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE)
1:30 pm-4:30 pm — Storytelling with Google News Tools and Beyond
This hands-on session will explore a variety of digital tools to help elevate your storytelling. We will look at advanced search, Google Trends, verification, data visualizations, mapping and more. Bring your laptop and follow along.
Trainer: Amara Aguilar, Professor, University of Southern California/RTDNA Google Tools Trainer
1:30 pm-4:30 pm — Be the Crowbar: Strategies for Prying Data from Reluctant Officials’ Grubbies
This hands-on training will provide practical tips for getting data out of reluctant government agencies so you can cover stories critical to your community, set your reporting apart from others, and propel your career to the next level. The session will offer dozens of datasets you can download for free, and the stories you can produce from them, and then cover strategies for finding and acquiring the data they don’t want you to have. The trainers also will provide tips for overcoming data denials, and suggestions for how to continue building your data-sleuthing skills long after the conference ends.
Trainer: David Cuillier, Director, University of Florida Brechner FOI Project