InquireFirst to hold inaugural journalism symposium in November
SAN DIEGO – Executive Director S. Lynne Walker will conduct InquireFirst’s inaugural investigative journalism symposium Nov. 14-18 in San Diego.
At least 20 Latin American journalists will attend the symposium titled “Investigative Journalism in the Digital Age: Using Technology to Tell Our Stories.” Print, radio, television and on-line journalists from Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama and Mexico will attend the intensive, five-day symposium.
The symposium, which will be conducted entirely in Spanish, will focus on the use of emerging technology in investigative storytelling. U.S. and Latin American experts will provide training on data research and low-cost and no-cost digital tools to conduct investigative reporting.
Journalists will meet with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters and editors to discuss environmental investigative reporting. They will have frank and open discussions with U.S. journalists with deep experience in Latin America about the coverage of drug trafficking and corruption. And they will meet with experts on cyber security, global access to information and journalist safety.
During the symposium, journalists will make a day trip to Tijuana, Mexico, where they will meet with journalists and human rights experts to discuss investigative reporting in high-risk situations.
Speakers include Robert Hernandez, associate professor of professional practice at the University of Southern California; Eileen Truax, contributing journalist with InquireFirst and author of “Dreamers: An Immigrant Generation’s Fight for Their American Dream”; Vicente Calderon, editorial director of Newsweek Baja; Pedro Enrique Armendares, executive director of the Mexico City-based Center of Investigative Journalists; Victor Clark Alfaro, director of the Bi-national Center for Human Rights; and Adela Navarro, publisher of the Tijuana weekly newspaper Zeta.
InquireFirst’s mission is to expand the boundaries of traditional journalism by sticking with our stories until the problems we reveal are addressed, and by helping people form communities around those problems so they can find solutions and take action. An integral part of our mission is to share what we learn with colleagues in the Western Hemisphere as we experiment with new ways of presenting investigative reporting and engaging communities in our stories.
Walker is a Pulitzer Prize finalist whose reporting has taken her to Mexico, where she lived for almost 16 years and reported on political, economic, legal and social issues. She regularly travels to Latin America to help colleagues find new ways to produce in-depth reporting and broaden their audiences. Walker has conducted Spanish-language journalism workshops in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Bolivia and Argentina.
For more information about the symposium, please contact Walker at: lynne.walker@inquirefirst.org