October • 2025 • The SPJ News
Covering MediaFest25 in Washington, D.C., October 15-18, 2025| The SPJ News
Covering MediaFest25 in Washington, D.C., October 15-18, 2025| The SPJ News
Amid dozens of panels and more than 1,000 participants milling around the three main floors of the Grant Hyatt convention center, there’s been one constant at MediaFest 25: complaints of weak Wi-Fi connectivity. Half a dozen MediaFest guests reported issues with internet connection, they told SPJ News.| The SPJ News
A recent Gallup polls finds trust in the media has reached a new low of 28%. It’s crucial now more than ever that journalists not only report the news, but also find new ways to connect with their fleeting audience Enter Trusting News, a company working to help repair the bridge between news consumers who are exhausted by endless streams of information and the journalists who tirelessly work on stories.| The SPJ News
Immigration and free speech laws are increasingly intertwined, advocate for Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) Dominic Coletti told a room of student journalists during his “Immigration 101” panel at MediaFest 25. Coletti, program officer for FIRE’s Student Press Freedom Initiative, said that while immigration statutes rarely change, “the practical considerations are evolving very quickly,” especially on college campuses where visa concerns now overlap with repor...| The SPJ News
Multimedia reporting depends on collaboration, experimentation and clear purpose, said Courtney Kan, senior editor for visuals of the Washington Post. Strong stories begin with a strong idea, she said at a panel titled Visual Storytelling at MediaFest 25. “Visuals should enhance and not distract from the narrative.| The SPJ News
Journalists can be at risk of hacking because of their prominent online presence. There are many ways this can happen: clicking on random emails, using multiple devices and logging into them and by stolen passwords. The most common way accounts can be hacked is through taking control of a computer system, also known as hijacking.| The SPJ News
When reporting on homelessness and poverty, journalists need to carefully examine what practices they engage with to make sure they capture a fuller picture, urged Laura Moorhead an associate professor at San Francisco State University’s journalism department. She discussed how journalistic norms and fairly reporting on homelessness are sometimes at odds during her MediaFest 25 session, “Reporting community stories on homelessness and poverty.”| The SPJ News
Three women in professional media shared their personal experience of coming up in the industry as women and women of color during the “Women’s Work” panel at MediaFest 25. They advocated for young women who are new to the industry to believe in their worth and speak up for what they deserve in the newsroom.| The SPJ News
As artificial intelligence and other algorithm-driven technologies rapidly advance, the public’s understanding of them is not — and that is where journalists come in. Digging into what is happening inside search engines and large language models is something anyone can do with very little tech knowledge, a six-step process Project Censored Editor-at-Large Andy Lee Roth walked student and professional journalists through during the “Beyond the black box: Using DIY algorithm audits to dev...| The SPJ News
