InquireFirst Executive Director S. Lynne Walker (center) instructed a journalism workshop for investigative reporters and editors in Monterrey, México.

Executive Director Lynne Walker travels to 5 Mexican states to instruct journalism workshops

S. Lynne Walker, executive director of InquireFirst, traveled to five Mexican states in September 2016 to instruct a series of investigative journalism and digital journalism workshops for reporters, editors, students and professors.

More than 150 journalists, university students and professors in Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon, Saltillo, Jalisco and Michoacan attended the journalism training sessions, which were organized by U.S. Consulates in Guadalajara, Monterrey and Ciudad Juarez and instructed by Walker in Spanish.

In Chihuahua City, Walker instructed a six-hour workshop over two days for print, radio and broadcast journalists, some of whom traveled several hours from distant cities to attend. The workshop focused on three key subjects: investigative reporting techniques, interview and writing techniques and an internationally accepted code of ethics for investigative reporters.

Walker also led a workshop on financing methods for on-line investigative promotes journalism. And she met with members of the Free Journalism Network (Red de Periodismo Libre), which promotes professional development while strengthening the investigative skills of colleagues covering crime and corruption.

In Coahuila, Saltillo, Walker led a Free the Press seminar that consisted of an interactive workshop attended by more than 40 journalists on developing an investigative story. More than 200 undergraduate students of communications, psychology, social work and social sciences at the Autonomous University of Coahuila, a state university founded in 1957, attended a lecture by Walker on “Borders, Migration and Investigative Reporting: Telling the Complex Story of International Migration.” Walker also met with academics and faculty to discuss the curriculum of the university’s new journalism program.

Walker instructed a virtual session with journalists in Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros as well as a seminar at the Benjamin Franklin Library in Monterrey with journalists from Monterrey, Saltillo and San Luis Potosi.

InquireFirst Executive Director S. Lynne Walker

During the dynamic, interactive sessions, Walker worked with journalists on interview techniques to help them drill down on investigative subjects and get information for detail-rich, well-sourced investigative reports. Walker then worked with journalists on ways to organize the complex material into compelling investigative stories.

In Morelia, Michoacán, Walker met with approximately 25 reporters and editors to help them develop new ways of identifying credible sources for their investigative reports and focused the session on working with journalists to develop a story on international organized crime.

At Lake Chapala, Walker led a round-table discussion with regional/rural reporters who talked about the challenges they face in presenting credible news coverage.

Some 35 journalists at El Informador, Guadalajara’s newspaper of record, attended an interactive workshop led by Walker, who then met with the paper’s top editors about the future of print media in Mexico.

The final two days of the program were conducted in collaboration with the University of Guadalajara’s Digital Journalism Center. The program focused on reporting, organizing and writing investigative stories, journalism ethics and new financial models for online investigative journalism. Walker also conducted one-on-one consultations with the journalists participating in the program.

More Symposiums

Mérida, Yucatán

MERIDA, Mexico – “There’s no more important work than the work being done by journalists,” said Brian O’Donnell, director of Campaign for Nature, during a February 2020 environmental investigative journalism workshop organized by InquireFirst.

As the world witnesses a “massive acceleration in extinction” of species, coverage of

Continue

Medellín & Cali, Colombia

MEDELLIN, Colombia – InquireFirst Executive Director Lynne Walker met with journalists in Medellín and Cali, Colombia, July 29-August 3 to discuss new techniques for conducting investigative reporting.

During the programs organized by the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, Walker led interactive sessions with journalists who cover

Continue

Lausanne, Switzerland

LAUSANNE, Switzerland – We’re pleased to announce that InquireFirst has awarded our first reporting grants to a team of Latin American science writers to support their work on a cross-border regional health story.

The reporters on the team were selected during our Jack F. Ealy Science Journalism Workshop, which was

Continue

Mexico City

MEXICO CITY – “Writing is music…language can be used in so many creative ways,” Deborah Blum, director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT, told almost 30 science and health journalists attending our regional workshop in Mexico City.

As Blum lead journalists through an interactive workshop on narrative science

Continue

Fullerton, Calif.

FULLERTON, Calif. – Top U.S. journalists joined InquireFirst as speakers at our “Transparency and Investigative Reporting” workshop Feb. 25-March 1, when Latin American journalists traveled to Southern California to attend sessions on fact-checking, in-depth investigative reporting, cyber security and reporting with drones.

Among our speakers were:

Ginger Thompson, senior reporter
Continue
Guayaquil, Ecuador

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador -- S. Lynne Walker, President and Executive Director of InquireFirst, traveled to Guayaquil and Quito, Ecuador, in January 2019 to instruct a series of interactive workshops titled “Investigative Journalism in High-Risk Situations.”

In Guayaquil, journalists from newspapers, television networks and online news sites participated in a nine-hour interactive

Continue

Palo Alto, Calif.

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Latin American science journalists were presented with a host of new professional development opportunities during the Jack F. Ealy Science Journalism Workshop at Stanford University.

The June 17-21, 2018 workshop, organized by InquireFirst and Mexico City-based Fundación Ealy Ortiz, focused on training opportunities – with Latin

Continue

San José, Costa Rica

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica – Science and health journalism should not be limited by international borders. Complex new health threats such as Zika virus that occur in a “noisy” media environment require a new model of reporting, Andrew Revkin, strategic adviser on science and environmental journalism for The National Geographic

Continue

México City

MEXICO CITY – Prominent Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui said the internet presents “a great light and a great shadow ” for journalism in an era of fake news

On the opening day of a journalism TechCamp in Mexico City, Aristegui acknowledged “there is serious questioning” of the

Continue

Donate

InquireFirst is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

Your donations are tax deductible and will be used by InquireFirst to offer professional training to reporters and editors in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean in the areas of digital reporting, ethics and freedom of expression, investigative journalism and journalist safety, and science and public health coverage.
Your support will also help us fund in-depth reporting that examines complex national and international issues and explains why they are of vital importance.

About Us

Journalists

Board of Directors

Advisory Council

Our team

InquireFirst In The News

Media Partners

Contact Us