Poynter’s Beat Academy, a yearlong slate of webinars designed to help journalists cover emerging and evolving beats, recently awarded several grants to news organizations inspired to take on reporting projects after attending Beat Academy training.
Following our spring webinars that addressed coverage of transgender issues, an independent panel of judges selected three proposals to receive $11,500 each through support from the Gill Foundation, which funds efforts to secure full equality for LGBTQ+ people, so that journalists could pursue reporting projects on the topic. They are:
- Underscore News: This nonprofit Pacific Northwest newsroom will trace the intersections of tribal sovereignty and gender-affirming care within tribes and Native organizations in the Pacific Northwest. For 50 years at least, the concept of Two Spirit citizens has taken shape within Indigenous communities. This project will flesh out what this means for tribal leaders and Two Spirit citizens, how the lens of sovereignty and cultural understanding of Two Spirit people affects tribes’ views and support for transgender issues, and how sovereignty enhances their ability to protect their citizens.
- Investigative Reporting Workshop: Over the course of the last year, journalists at the IRW, a nonprofit newsroom based at American University in Washington, D.C., have constructed a database of all anti-trans legislation introduced in statehouses across the country (both legislation that has passed and that has failed). This project focuses on quantifying and telling the human stories of those who have been impacted by statewide bans on gender-affirming care. It will be especially focused on stories and characters from states with diminished local news coverage.
- NBC6 Miami: The newsroom will share stories of five BIPOC transgender individuals in Miami through a series of multimedia reports. All stories will be showcased on a variety of platforms, including local broadcasts and social media. In partnership with Telemundo51, the project will produce some stories in Spanish.
A February webinar series focused on helping journalists understand and cover political extremism. Our independent panel of judges selected these three reporting projects about anti-democracy activity to receive $10,000 apiece from the Joyce Foundation, which invests in advancing racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region, including support for independent journalism:
- Wisconsin Watch: This project will build upon Wisconsin Watch’s latest reporting on Matthew Trewhella. Trewhella’s teachings are behind some of the more viral elements of the right-wing Christian nationalist movement to foment civil war and antidemocratic turmoil. Those ideas include Second Amendment counties, constitutional sheriffs and an election denialist tour encouraging people to push back against election results at the county and local level.
- Athens County Independent: This Ohio nonprofit newsroom will focus on a growing activist group. While its roots are in West Virginia, the group has expanded into Ohio with an agenda that blends anti-fracking, anti-vaccination, stolen election beliefs and support for Jan. 6 rioters. Certain churches play a key role in the group’s growth. The project will look at who is attending these meetings, what drew them there, the group’s activities and how it is funded. The reporting will be done in conjunction with 100 Days in Appalachia.
- Lee Montana Newspapers: This newspaper group (Helena Independent Record, Billings Gazette, Missoulian, Montana Standard, Ravalli Republic) will report on Tactical Civics, a new Christian militia movement in the Rocky Mountain West. Tactical Civics has a four-phase plan to end Congress as we know it. Phase One requires establishing militias and “citizens grand juries” in each county to ensure their plan moves forward.
Each of these six entities is expected to produce its reporting project by the end of 2024.
Beat Academy delivers the latest knowledge that journalists need to cover critical topics of deep importance to their communities. Through a series of eight webinar topics that feature the nation’s leading journalists, experts and thinkers, Poynter’s Beat Academy equips journalists with beat expertise, data know-how and excellent local and national sources.
Replays of past sessions are included with purchase.
Our next session — Vote Watch 2024: What’s on the line for your state’s voting system? — will be July 11. Drawing on guidance from top election reporters, this session gives you the strategies to be ready for election day. Plus, you’ll get a guided tour of the new Knight Election Hub, a collection of free and competitive services to boost your election coverage.
Nonprofit newsrooms and for-profit news organizations with less than $5 million in revenue can enroll for free using code 24BAKnight100. For other groups, the cost is just $18 using code 24voteBA18.
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