News

Announcing Leap: ICFJ's News Innovation Lab

How can media outlets build trust, when so many people doubt the credibility of news? This is one of the most pressing questions journalism faces today, and it has far-reaching implications not only for the industry but for our civic health. Addressing this and other urgent issues requires prodigious creativity, as well as the time and support for innovation – something few newsrooms have.

That’s why ICFJ has developed Leap, a news innovation lab. Our goal is not innovation simply for its own sake. We designed Leap to give newsrooms across the world the space to explore the most essential challenges confronting journalism today and to shape its future. We want to ease the risk and costs that inhibit innovation, especially for small and mid-sized independent news organizations.

“Piercing Putin’s Truth Blockade:” Former ICFJ Award Winner, President Shine a Light on Russian Reporters in Exile

In a new piece for Nieman Reports, award-winning media founder Roman Anin and ICFJ President Sharon Moshavi call for global support of Russian journalists who, despite the challenges, are providing independent news about Russia’s war in Ukraine to fellow citizens living under “increasingly authoritarian darkness” in their country.

From Russia’s Invasion to the Rise of the Taliban: The Impact of Conflicts and Disinformation on Our World

The signs of Russia’s turn away from democracy came early in Vladimir Putin’s presidency. Putin deployed populist propaganda pitting the educated, urban elite against “the people.” That may have been a missed opportunity for journalists, who at the time enjoyed greater freedoms, to reach Russians outside the major urban centers, said Peter Pomerantsev, a Russia-Ukraine expert speaking at an ICFJ event in New York City recently.

Media Innovators and Intrepid Reporters Covering Global Hotspots Tapped for Prestigious International Journalism Awards

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) announced its annual Knight International Journalism Awards, recognizing excellent reporting that makes a difference in the lives of people around the world. The winners are a team of Ukrainian journalists whose searing images showed the world Russia’s brutal siege of Mariupol; an Afghan TV reporter whose investigations uncovered gross mismanagement of COVID-19 resources; and a media visionary who pioneered online reporting and exposed corruption in El Salvador.

Meet the Experts Partnering with Elevate, ICFJ’s News Business Hub

Elevate, ICFJ’s news business hub, kicked off this month with a powerful set of implementing partners. The group of business leaders will focus on teaching 18 news media outlets chosen to participate in the program’s first cohort the most important skills to overcome their financial and operational challenges.

How to Address Journalism’s Funding Crisis

A new UNESCO policy brief led by ICFJ calls for urgent action to address the news media viability crisis. The authors, including ICFJ’s Deputy Vice President of Global Research Dr. Julie Posetti and Columbia University’s Dr. Anya Schiffrin, review how news organizations, online platforms, governments and other stakeholders have responded to the funding challenges facing journalism, and offer recommendations to help independent media thrive.

Tips for Reporting on Reproductive Health

The recent release of a draft decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that suggests it will repeal the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established a constitutional right to abortion has placed access to abortion and other reproductive healthcare into the media spotlight. Covering abortion and reproductive health requires care

ICFJ’s Global Crisis Reporting Forum Now Offering Trainings, Resources in Arabic

Arabic-speaking journalists have a valuable new resource to deepen their coverage of conflict, migration, climate change, health crises and more – ICFJ’s Pamela Howard Forum on Global Crisis Reporting.

The Forum, already available in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish, has expanded to serve Arabic speakers. Across five languages, the initiative connects journalists with resources, experts and each other to enhance reporting on critical global issues of local importance.

MDIF’s Torres-Burd: “There is No One-Size-Fits-All Recipe” for Media Sustainability

Independent news outlets hold the powerful to account and provide critical information to their communities, but many struggle financially and risk going out of business.

The Chilling: New Recommendations Aimed at News Organizations and the Platforms in Response to Online Violence Against Women Journalists

New research from a UN study produced by ICFJ details how news organizations and big tech companies are failing to adequately mitigate and respond to online violence targeting women journalists – a global scourge with serious and far-reaching consequences. The researchers offer concrete recommendations to better safeguard women journalists, who face credible death threats, threats of sexual violence – including against their children – and large-scale coordinated online harassment designed to silence them and their reporting.