The must-see sessions from the International Journalism Festival
By Corinne Podger
Every year more than 3000 journalists, researchers and media development organisations descend on the medieval Italian town of Perugia for the International Journalism Festival.
The speaker list for the 5-day conference is an industry who’s who from Europe and North America. It’s been great to see increased representation from Asia and Africa in recent years, too.
Every session in the bulging program is recorded for permanent access on YouTube. You can filter for themes, such as news business models, safety and well-being, collaborative journalism, and AI. This was my fourth IJF so I knew the drill: spend as much time as possible talking to fellow attendees and catch up on the sessions later on YouTube.
My top picks
Everyone will have their own take on the best sessions at IJF. For example, here’s the takeaways from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. I’ve chosen sessions that reflect themes that I hope will interest Australian journalists and editors, with practical ideas for serving our communities better, and improving audience engagement.
Audience needs at the heart of your editorial strategy
This session looks at how you can improve your editorial strategy to meet specific audience needs and build loyalty, drawing on lessons from newsrooms all over the world.
Watch the session: https://youtu.be/jqMF9YV9dCc
How to help audiences avoid information overload
A practical panel discussion about methods to help your audience deal with news fatigue and information overload, and build media literacy skills.
Watch the session: https://youtu.be/DSKhscc7fGA
How do you measure the social value of your journalism?
Newsrooms are inundated with metrics for reach, attention, and engagement — but how do we assess journalism’s social impact? This session has practical tips for metrics to measure the impact of stories on audience lives and behaviours.
Watch the session: https://youtu.be/sEE_ccUS2RM
Know your audience: diversity as an actual path towards representation
Research by Reuters has shown a direct link between audience representation, and a willingness to pay for news. This panel discussion explores new employment models and other approaches to improve inclusion and audience representation in our newsrooms.
Watch the session: https://youtu.be/n6h0kS8E4Yg
Where are the working class journalists?
There has been a lot of discussion about making newsrooms more inclusive of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) journalists, but less discussion about making our newsrooms more representative of working class and socio-economically disadvantaged communities. This session presented ideas for change from four reporters from British working class backgrounds.
Watch the session: https://youtu.be/ePEYGfWLxaY
Building a news brand on TikTok
There were three sessions at IJF this year focused on TikTok, and they were all standing room only. One was a workshop I delivered on building a news brand on TikTok, and others featured TikTok influencer journalists who’ve driven millions of views on the platform.
Find your brand voice on TikTok
This is my introductory session on how to use the platform, with case studies from around the world — including the ABC here in Australia — to help you use the platform to share news and special interest topics on TikTok.
Watch the session: https://youtu.be/QMCLH_Xm3hs
TikTok: Killing video as we know it, or curing news avoidance?
A panel discussion to help you understand what video tone, formats and content work on TikTok, and how to navigate the constant changes on the platform.
Watch the session: https://youtu.be/y_l19K5Rexc
TikTok and the news: how can publishers join the party?
This panel explores how VICE World News and the Washington Post are using TikTok to share news with youth audiences. The session also explored ethical considerations around the Chinese-owned platform.
Watch the session: https://youtu.be/z1jex5Zd-l0
