PMJA Power Ups

News consumers count on media to help them sift through mis- and disinformation, and one way to do that is presenting them with research-based evidence. But many reporters without scientific or statistics backgrounds lack confidence when citing data and fear misrepresenting “the science”. Through presentations, discussion, and hands-on activities, this workshop will help journalists gain a new level of insight into how to integrate scientific evidence in their reporting. You’ll learn:

• How to read and understand a scientific paper and determine whether a finding might be exaggerated;
• How to find the right expert source and get the most out of an interview;
• How to include numbers and data in your writing in ways that are accessible and understandable.
• Ways to understand and explain how much uncertainty exists around a given finding and how to write about that uncertainty;
• What important statistical concepts like p-values, risk and odds, correlation strength, and absolute and relative numbers mean, and how to use them; and
• How to accurately report on opinion polls and surveys in the leadup to the 2024 election.

All with no math required and an eye to understanding where the data come from, what they represent, and how to get help when you need it to more effectively interpret data for your audience. Most importantly, it will help give you the confidence to strengthen your storytelling—no matter the topic—with accurate, trust-enhancing, scientific evidence.

TAKEAWAYS:

Attendees will gain comfort and confidence in their ability to use scientific evidence and quantitative data in their reporting—a skill that’s critical not just for covering scientific topics but for covering many issues of community relevance. These skills will prove especially valuable in the lead-up to November’s elections, when candidates and pollsters will be quoting scads of statistics, none of which should be simply repeated in the news but instead should be understood, analyzed, and put into context.

Fee:  $50, free for Students!

SciLine is committed to providing its services, for both scientists and reporters, for free. The $50 fee for this training event covers hosting costs. However, if this fee presents a challenge, please reach out; we want everyone to be able to join and benefit from the program.

Join three of PMJA's Editor Corps Editors for this intensive workshop that will cover the reporter-editor relationship - and help editors and aspiring editors develop the tools they need to provide the best editing support. 

We will approach the editing process holistically, focusing on working as a team with a reporter in order to create a better story.  Topics covered will include:

• Ideation and story development 
• Identifying, vetting  sources 
• Writing and editing across platforms
• Relationship building
• Fact-checking and vetting 
• Editing for clarity and pacing 
• Ethical considerations

Participants will take part in presentations, exercises, and question and answer sessions.

This workshop is appropriate for newer editors as well as experienced editors seeking to become more skilled.

Presenters: Ted Robbins, Traci Tong and Linnea Edmeier

Fee: $250 members, $350 non-members

Join NPR and your station colleagues for this PMJA Power-Up focused on the digital audience.  We'll focus on digital audience and the engagement funnel we as a network leverage to deepen people’s relationships with public media.

Built in the spirit of pre-pandemic Digital Day, sessions will be broken up into three key pillars of the funnel: Awareness, Engagement, and Retention. Well break into groups under each pillar for facilitated discussions to review metrics, discuss tools and techniques and finally strategies to take home with us in each of these areas.

Participants can mix and match to get the most out of the day's discussions, share their best practices and discuss strategies with network peers and leave with actionable items to take back to their organizations.

Learn more about Audience Day at https://www.pmja.org/audience-day-npr

Fee:  $50 members, $200 non-members