Friday 10:45-11:45am
No More A**holes in the Newsroom: Building positive culture.
A conversation about how newsroom culture goes bad and what every journalist can do to create a more hospitable, happier workplace and defend his/her self against negativity, harrassment and bullies (even if your boss is the bully). There is new research that discusses why a positive culture is critical for business success. That is magnified in a newsroom of skeptical, distrustful journalists. Building a culture is more than just having a fun place to work… culture makes or breaks strategic intentions. One critical element is recognizing and eliminating negative people — bullies. Newsrooms have them too often and leaders are not equipped to handle them. Understand the power dynamics of negative newsrooms and achieve personal control over your newsroom culture and your personal happiness.
Saturday 10:15-11:45am
Covering All People: Practicing Inclusive Journalism
Learn how to identify and mitigate implicit bias in yourself, in others and in your journalism and understand how “empathic insight” can drive a disciplined approach to news gathering — making real, emotional connections with sources, leading to better news stories.
New research shows that people of color not only do not see their reality portrayed on the news, but many believe the stereotypes and inequality to be overt and planned. Bias is ingrained in all of us. Our implicit, unconscious bias leads to errors in how we perceive, reason, remember and, most importantly, make decisions about people. Bias limits our news-gathering and objectivity. New research into “empathic insight” shows it can guide journalists to be more curious about the emotional experience of others and, used well, can help us go beyond what we see and seek the “truth” — the life experience and perceptions — seen by people of color. Using real examples and interactive personal exercises, this program will teach journalists how to identify unconscious racial bias and hidden agendas and help them connect on a deeper level.
Saturday 1:45-3:30pm
Enterprise reporting and Everyday Investigations
How to bring investigative techniques into every story you do. This involves the entire newsroom… producers, desk, reporters and digital. we look at examples of local stories (in other markets) and discuss how we can win the daily story through deeper fact-gathering and teamwork.
A self-described “recovering” news director, Kevin Benz is well-known as an inspiring, engaging speaker. He coaches thousands of journalists and dozens of newsrooms around the country with his own style of pragmatic, ethical craft. His 30 years in newsrooms and o the streets provide a unique understanding of what journalists need.
He’s a bit media trailblazer and innovator. Kevin launched two of the most innovative media organizations in the country — News 8 Austin, a 24-hour local news channel; and CultureMap Austin, the most read digital lifestyle magazine of the city.
Kevin began his career in broadcast journalism as an award-winning news photographer and followed a path to becoming a nationally recognized journalism leader — serving 12 years as news director in Austin. His teams received national recognition from the most prestigious organizations including the Sigma Delta Chi awards, the National Edward R. Murrow award, three National Walter Cronkite awards for excellence in Political Journalism and the DuPont-Columbia Awards.
Kevin is former Chairman of both the Radio, Television, Digital News Association and the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters where he co-founded the Southwest Broadcast Journalism Conference.
