The program offered a study tour for Polish journalists. The group of 12 people has been recruited from the pool of those who applied for the “Reporting Complexity” program.
The high-level goal for this program was for highly experienced Polish journalists to meet with U.S. peers and media/journalism outlets and to exchange ideas and experience about practical challenges, solutions and approaches in our current journalism landscape. Specific topics were determined through survey and discussions with the selected group.
Topics included:
● Reporting on Russia during the Time of War – Ethical, Other Concerns
● Reporting on Ukraine (Comparing Polish and US Perspectives)
● Addressing Disinformation (including Conspiracy Theories)
● Fact Checking (including Online)
● Data Journalism (Presenting, Interpreting, and Incorporating Data)
● The Future of Journalism in an Era of Digital and Social Media
● Reaching Young Audiences (e.g., (a) Role of Journalism in Instilling Democratic Values in Young People; (b) Financial Literacy Journalism for Young Women; (c) Media Literacy
● Security and Wellbeing: (a) Resources for Journalists’ Protection and Reaction, Physically and Online; and (b) Trauma in Journalism
● The Role/Impact of Journalism concerning Marginalization, Oppression, Racism, Diversity, and Social Justice
The group visited Washington D.C. and New York City on March 18-April 1, 2023. It was a rich program, tailored to the interests of 12 prominent Polish journalists. All participants proved to be motivated and, as many of the speakers pointed out, the group was active and had a lot of questions.
Top-tier highlights of the visit included:
● Site visits with editorial and organizational leadership at the offices of significant news outlets: Bloomberg, NPR member station WAMU, Voice of America,
Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal;
● Meetings with experienced journalists, among
others: Jill Dougherty, Mark Kramer, Barry Newman and Devlin Barrett;
● Journalists networking “mixers” hosted by the local chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists in both DC and NYC;
● Meetings with experts, among others: Nina
Jankowicz, Linda Roth;
● Visits to universities teaching journalism or meetings with experts from educational institutions,
for example: Hofstra University’s school of communications, National Endowment for Democracy (Eastern European media experts).
The group was satisfied with the program offered. To quote one of the participants: “[this was] one of the greatest journalist adventures in my life :)”.
