Climate change. The 2024 presidential election. Transgender medical care. The economy.
Journalists require background, resources, experts and data to help their audiences contextualize these and other complex issues.
That’s where Beat Academy comes in.
In a series of expert-led and resource-packed webinars, Beat Academy will enhance journalists’ understanding on topics critical to American life in 2024.
We’ll be tackling the emerging beats you need the most help synthesizing, while considering the trends driving change in your markets. You’ll leave Beat Academy with tools, sources and resources that will empower your storytelling and enable you to better serve your communities.
After each topic, you will walk away with:
- A framework to understand the complexities of each issue.
- A guide to diverse and trustworthy sources.
- A leg up on finding and using data relevant to your community.
- A robust list of story ideas specific to your audience.
Journalists new to the newsroom or deep into their careers can benefit from this program. What’s more, some topics serve as a gateway to generous grant-reporting opportunities and on-site field work.
For just $75, individual journalists gain access to our entire series of eight topics. Each topic will include one or two 90-minute webinars, where you’ll hear renowned journalists share the particulars of covering these emerging beats, including their reporting strategies. Alongside them will be experts focused on the changing dynamics in each topic area. Every subject will include valuable roadmaps that will connect reporters to the hard data that matters in their market area, as well as story ideas to take back to their newsrooms.
Attend the webinars for as many topics as you like, or only those that directly impact your work. Newsrooms can also buy seats in bulk for a significant discount — purchases of five or more spots are just $50 each.
Upcoming sessions include:
- Extremist Politics: How to report on powerful undercurrents in the 2024 elections (Feb. 1, 15)
- Auditing ARPA and IRA: How to report on Biden’s promise to communities (Feb. 29)
- Immigration in Focus: How domestic labor demand and politically-driven immigrant busing expose flaws in the system (March 14; El Paso workshop June 6-10)
- Economic Realities: Understanding your local economy and telling compelling stories centered on people and families. (April 4, writing session June 13)
- Transgender Coverage: Avoiding rhetoric to deliver meaningful journalism (April 18, May 2)
- New Healthcare Dynamics: What medical AI and the lack of long-term care choices mean for your communities (May 30, Sept. 26)
- Vote Watch 2024: What’s on the line for your state’s voting system? (July 11)
- Climate Change: Finding the angle in any beat (Sept. 12)
Several sessions include reporting grant opportunities and expenses-paid workshops.
Session enrollees in Extremist Politics can compete for one of three $10,000 reporting grants, and/or one of 25 spots in a free, expenses paid advanced workshop in Chicago on April 11, with funding from the Joyce Foundation. (Slight preference for both will be given to reporters in the Great Lake states: Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.)
Great Lakes journalists who enroll and attend Auditing ARPA and IRA can win one of two $10,000 reporting grants, thanks to the Joyce Foundation. Read more here.
Immigration enrollees can compete for one of 25 spots on a trip to El Paso, Texas. The field reporting experience is set for June 4-7, with room, board, and a travel stipend included.
Beat Academy gave some of our most promising reporters a chance to pick up new tools and sources, and connect with other journalists in their field. … I saw the Beat Academy’s lessons at work in the attention (reporters) paid to how communities experience climate change differently. — Thomas Koetting, senior manager for content, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Enrollees in our transgender coverage sessions can apply for one of three reporting grants of up to $11,500 to explore how the transgender debate has touched lives in their area.
Please click the “schedule” tab above for a list of upcoming sessions and specific dates and times. This section will be updated periodically as more sessions are added.
All sessions are recorded for enrollees.
Funders include the Joyce Foundation, Catena Foundation, the National Institute for Health Care Management Research and Educational Foundation, and the Gill Foundation.
Questions?
If you are enrolling five or more people, use coupon code BeatAcademy40 during checkout to get a significant discount. If you need help or have any questions, please email us at info@poynter.org.
