Career Development : Calendar

Disrupting disinformation: A skill set for journalists

10/13/20

Oct. 13, 2020; 11 a.m. ET

Whether it is electoral disinformation or hoaxes about miracle cures for coronavirus, the information landscape we navigate daily is increasingly polluted. This master class will walk you through the most common types of disinformation we find online, how to spot them and provide some tools and tips on how to slow its spread.

• Laura Garcia, training & support manager, First Draft News

• Diara J. Townes, investigative researcher & community engagement lead, First Draft News

• Moderator: Keren Landman, M.D., independent journalist

Laura Garcia heads First Draft’s training and education across newsrooms and journalism schools. Her work as a multimedia journalist started back in her home, Mexico, as a photographer for a newspaper. She also worked for newspapers and film production companies in the US before coming to the UK in September 2011. Garcia has worked in different newsrooms across the UK: ITV Meridian, BBC South East, BBC Radio Kent, NBC News, R4’s The World Tonight and Channel 5 News. Previously she worked as a lecturer in television and multimedia journalism at the University of Kent, and produced a politics show for KMTV. She is passionate about access into journalism and diversifying the media and is the co-founder of PressPad and the UK chapter of AMMPE World. Garcia also works as the London correspondent for Bloomberg Mexico and Estrella TV in Los Angeles.

Diara Townes' decade of experience in public speaking, science education and creating online digital media allow me to cultivate a more inclusive approach to science and journalism. As an investigative researcher, she uncovers misinformation to develop an understanding of social narratives and how they spread and intersect online. She has led on several innovative projects as First Draft's community engagement lead for the U.S. team. She is developing a career around building relationships using community engagement methodologies to develop sustainable environmental change. She strives to create effective communicative strategies that will combat the climate crisis on local, regional and international levels.

Keren Landman, a member of AHCJ's board of directors, is a practicing physician, epidemiologist, and journalist who covers topics in medicine and public health. Several years ago, Landman pivoted to journalism from a career as a physician and epidemiologist. After training in internal medicine, pediatrics, and infectious diseases and working as a “disease detective” at the CDC and the NYC health department, she completed a journalism fellowship at the University of Toronto in 2016. Since then, she has written for a variety of publications about health disparities and other public health issues. She has served on AHCJ's freelance committee and, this year, as a contest judge.