This week the News Impact Summit came to DCU’s Helix bringing with it some of the news industry’s most innovative leaders. Focusing on some of the most progressive movements in digital journalism, from User Generated Content (UGC) to developments in video news across platforms, speakers highlighted the trends readers can expect to see in the coming months and years.
The focus of the morning programme was on UGC as well as digital video stories with a keynote speech from Micah Gelman, Director of Editorial Video at The Washington Post. This was followed by a panel looking back UGC in 2015 with Malachy Browne, Reported.ly, Aine Kerr, Storyful, Jenni Sargent, First Draft and Raja Althaibani, Witness.
The conference’s afternoon sessions opened up two different tracks to introduce tools and enhance skills, one focusing on data and visualisation and another on fact-checking and verification processes. Expert sessions on digital storytelling and visualisations drew a large crowd in the afternoon before FuJo’s Mark Little and Dr Jane Suiter wound up the event with a fireside chat about the future for Irish Journalism.
The sold out event was organised by Google News Labs, the European Journalism Centre (EJC) and the FuJo Institute. For those who were missing out, the main sessions were live streamed and team a ‘live tweeters’ recorded speakers main points.
#NISDUB was the day’s hashtag and was trending in Dublin all day so we have collected some of the speakers' main points and top tweets over the four sessions.
Fact Checking and Verification
The Fact Checking Track was ideal for those with a particular interest in a forensic approach to digital journalism. Joseph O’Leary for Full Fact drew attention to verification processes that ensure the most accurate reporting followed by Ed Bice, CEO of Meedan, who introduced free online tools for evaluating the quality of UGC.
Data Track
The Data track saw Matt Cooke from Google News Labs offer insights on Google trends and the best practices in visuals for the media industry. This was followed up by Bahareh Heravi from Hacks Hackers Dublin and the Insight News Lab who gave her best tricks and tips for digital data journalists.
Session 3: Tips & Tricks for DDJ starters with Hacks/Hackers Dublin
Expert Sessions
The day finished with expert sessions on digital storytelling from, Helen Shaw, Athena Media and Hanna Ingber, International Desk Editor at the New York Times, as well DJJ design mistakes with Jonathon Berlin, the Graphics Editor from The Chicago Tribune and finishing up with a fire side chat on the future of Irish Journalism.
