Amidst the ravaging COVID-19 crisis across the globe, which has wrecked so much havoc and also affected physical gatherings, there have been renewed calls for more newsrooms collaboration at the 2020 collaborative journalism summit.
The 2020 summit which was held virtually, had in attendance over 400 journalists, including two young Nigerian Journalists — Alao Abiodun (The Nation Newspapers) and Niyi Oyedeji (Nigerian Tribune).
The summit was originally planned to hold in North Carolina with participants from several news outlets representing a wide variety of collaboratives and projects were expected to speak on the future of collaborative journalism.
In her remarks, Stefanie Murray, Director, Center for Cooperative Media who said she was delighted by the pool of applicants and the virtual aspect, said the decision to make this year’s summit virtual was without hesitation.
“Collaboration is so important and because the community we’ve built over the last four years is a supportive, flexible bunch. We knew there would be some bumps but we could work through it together.
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“While we’re building on the success of past Collaborative Journalism Summits, to be sure, this is also a huge experiment for us in the virtual gathering. We’re nervous, yes, but also excited and happy to be doing it,” She said.
The summit had speakers from Knight Foundation, the North Carolina Local News Lab, Democracy Fund, American Press Institute, the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford, Google News Initiative, Education NC amongst others.
It featured live chats, question and answer segments, live graphic illustration, different networking break rooms which also incorporated art/live animation, series of virtual exchange and friendly banters.
Various speakers highlighted how collaborative news efforts are continuing to grow in size and scope across the U.S. as more news organizations work in partnership to address community information needs. The Centre stressed the need to improve collaborative reporting and took participants through practical guidance.
Some of the topics addressed at the summit were “coronavirus collaboration: A look at how newsrooms are partnering to cover the biggest story of our lifetime”; “rising temperatures, rising collaboration: How the climate crisis has spurred journalism partnerships around the world” and many more.
