Approximately 700 students and educators gathered for the keynote panel at the Associated Collegiate Press’ national conference in San Francisco on March 5, which was moderated by ACP board member Tamara Zellars Buck and featured FAC press education specialist Thadeus Greenson, as well as professional and student journalists.
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Alex Emslie of KQED (left) and Roselyn Romero of The Oaklandside with FAC press education specialist Thadeus Greenson talk about the importance of records in accountability reporting.
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The highlight of the Associated Collegiate Press national conference for me came in the 49th minute of a 50-minute panel the First Amendment Coalition convened with KQED assignment editor Alex Emslie and The Oaklandside public safety reporter Roselyn Romero to discuss the importance of records in police accountability reporting. To wrap things up, I’d asked each to share with attending students something a piece of advice for journalists just starting out on the public safety beat.
After Alex talked about the importance of understanding that everyone on all sides of your reporting are real people, Roselyn shared a personal experience. She said she experienced self-doubt and a bit of imposter syndrome when she would often find herself as the only young woman or the only person of color in a press conference, but that she’d come to understand her presence in such rooms was vital, as was her perspective, and that the public was counting on her to not only be in those rooms but to fully engage in them. She wanted students to feel the same, and leaned forward in her chair, emphasizing her final point.
“Whatever room you’re in, you belong,” she said. “You belong.”
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Greenson (center) talks about covering protests on a panel with Kirstin McCudden, chief of editorial at the Freedom of the Press Foundation and Sam Grotenstein of The Daily Californian, who experienced being detained by San Francisco police last year.
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More than 900 students from a wide range of backgrounds and all corners of the country attended the three-day conference in San Francisco. The energy and enthusiasm were invigorating, as was the diversity on display in the audience as, on behalf of FAC, I participated in five sessions on press rights and records-based reporting.
These used to be spaces primarily dominated by white men and it’s ever encouraging to see that’s no longer the case, as diverse newsrooms benefit from varied backgrounds and life experiences, which leads to better coverage.
On the conference’s first day, I represented FAC on a pair of panels to discuss protest coverage, sharing our views on special press access provisions recently enacted by the Legislature and some tips for staying safe and producing responsible coverage. The first was organized by Kirstin MCudden, the managing editor of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a database that tracks press freedom incidents across the country, and featured Daily Californian editor Sam Grotenstein, who talked about his personal experience being detained and shoved by San Francisco police last year. The next was the conference’s keynote panel, which featured a handful of local journalists and student journalist Delfino Camacho, who was tear gassed, pepperballed and shot with rubber bullets while covering protests in the Los Angeles area.
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Sierra Lopez with the Bay Area News Group (left) and Greenson participated in the keynote panel on covering protests at the Associated Collegiate Press’ national conference in San Francisco on March 5.
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After moderating a police accountability panel Friday, I put on a pair of interactive records-based reporting workshops Saturday. One walked students through developing reporting plans for three scenarios common to college campuses and what types of public records they could request to add depth and context to their reporting. The other workshop had students brainstorm ideas for stories that could be built entirely around a public records request, with the goal of generating 25 or more in 50 minutes, ensuring attendees returned to their newsrooms with not just a list of story ideas but also a records-based reporting mindset. The students not only understood the assignment but crushed it, putting together a list of more than 50, proving without question they belonged in the room.
Photos: Desmond Meagley
Want to bring FAC’s journalist trainers or members of our legal team to your newsroom, classroom or conference? Email us at education [at] firstamendmentcoalition.org. Check out sample workshops.