ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (May 30, 2018) – Robots. Automation. Artificial Intelligence. The future of work is changing faster than anyone could have ever predicted. At the same time, access to higher education — a crucial component for connecting students to the jobs of the future — remains out of reach for large sectors of the population, particularly in minority communities.
The Poynter Institute and WorkingNation are partnering to produce two workshops in 2018 that help journalists connect advances in technology to their storytelling around the future of work and higher education. These free workshops will offer journalists from around the country the opportunity to investigate these issues, and equip journalists with the expertise and connections to better report on them.
“The future of work and the future of higher education are some of the most important issues for local reporters to shed light on. Well informed community leaders will be able to influence the fitness of their local workforce over the next decade. Uninformed communities will be left behind,” said Poynter vice president Kelly McBride. “Poynter is partnering with WorkingNation to help journalists understand the intricacies of these issues so that they are able to better inform the communities they serve.”
WorkingNation is a national not-for-profit campaign dedicated to preparing the American workforce for the changing employment demands of the U.S. economy. The organization is comprised of talented journalists and media executives, making it uniquely qualified to partner with Poynter to carry out these workshops.
“These workshops represent an important step in improving the awareness and understanding of two issues that will have a growing impact on the lives of millions of Americans,” said Jane Oates, President of WorkingNation. “At no cost to them, reporters of all stripes will walk away with a newfound ability to do reporting they otherwise would not have done, more authoritatively, and with greater potential impact.”
Applications for A Journalist’s Guide to Covering the Future of Work are open now. The workshop will take place Sept. 27-28 at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. and feature prominent instructors, such as LinkedIn co-founder Allen Blue and PBS NewsHour anchor Hari Sreenivasan. Applications for the workshop on equity gaps in higher education will open soon.
During the training events, participants will be confronted with pressing issues surrounding the changing nature of work after high school, and whether communities and civic leaders should design a future post-high-school education system that will prepare citizens for productive work. Topic experts will also train journalists to tell stories that expose the opportunity gaps in the post-high-school education system and how to showcase communities as they search for solutions.
Each workshop will take place over a two-day period with 20 to 35 journalists in attendance, including business, economic, general assignment, enterprise, political and workplace reporters.
The impact of the changing world of work and access to higher education is being felt in all types of communities across the country. For this reason, the trainings will reach a wide range of journalists, including major metropolitan markets and regional population centers as well as smaller communities.
The tuition-free workshops are made possible by a funding grant from Lumina Foundation, an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis that is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all.
Lumina Foundation endowed WorkingNation with a major grant in 2017 to support original video and digital journalism and other efforts that increase awareness and understanding about the future of work.
About WorkingNation
Founded by philanthropist and venture capitalist Art Bilger, WorkingNation exists to expose hard truths about the looming unemployment crisis and bring the country together to create new jobs for a changing economy. Bilger serves as CEO of WorkingNation and has assembled a team of talented journalists and media and non-profit executives to carry out its mission. WorkingNation’s efforts include a series of original programming from award-winning directors and producers as well as other forms of interactive multimedia outreach to everyday Americans.
For more information, visit WorkingNation.com.
About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a global leader in journalism education and a strategy center that stands for uncompromising excellence in journalism, media and 21st century public discourse. Poynter faculty teach seminars and workshops at the Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, and at conferences and organizations around the world. Its e-learning division, News University, offers the world’s largest online journalism curriculum with hundreds of interactive courses. The Institute’s website, www.poynter.org, produces 24-hour coverage of news about media, ethics, technology, the business of news and the trends that currently define and redefine journalism news reporting. The world’s top journalists and media innovators come to Poynter to learn and teach new generations of journalists, and to build public awareness about journalism that serves democracy and the public good.
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