How to report and produce break-out work: Exploring Livingston Award winning investigations

Michael S. Schmidt, Christina Goldbaum, Chris Davis

Livingston Awards winners Michael S. Schmidt and Christina Goldbaum speak with Chris Davis at 2018 IRE Orlando

June 15 | 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Oceans 4
2018 IRE Orlando

 

Meet the 2018 winners of the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists. From landing their first journalism jobs to breaking investigative award-winning pieces, they will examine ways to get noticed, dig deeper and tell powerful stories.

Panelists:

  • Michael S. Schmidt, 2018 Livingston Award winner for national reporting. A full year before the #MeToo movement gained traction, Michael Schmidt and Emily Steel dug into a decade old lawsuit filed against Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly. What the Times’ team uncovered would lead to the discovery of $45 million in sexual harassment settlements involving O’Reilly and topple cable news’ biggest star.Schmidt is a Washington correspondent for The New York Times. For the past year, his coverage has focused on Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into links between Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia and whether the president obstructed justice.
  • Christina Goldbaum, 2018 Livingston Award winner for international reporting. Christina Goldbaum’s on-the-ground reporting on growing U.S. military engagement and counter-terrorism efforts in Africa has become essential reading. In her series for The Daily Beast, Goldbaum pieced together a military raid that is alleged to have resulted in the deaths of 10 Somali civilians, including at least one child.Goldbaum is an independent journalist based in Mogadishu. She has written for The New York Times, Foreign Policy, USA Today, The Daily Beast, VICE and The Wall Street Journal, and has produced TV segments for “PBS NewsHour,” Netflix and “VICE News Tonight” on HBO.

Moderator:

  • Chris Davis, Vice-President for Investigative Journalism at Gannett and Livingston Awards judge. Davis oversees USA Today’s major investigative efforts at Gannett’s newspapers across the country, providing guidance to national, regional and local watchdog projects. Previously, he was the deputy editor for investigations and data at the Tampa Bay Times. As an I-team editor, he led investigations that earned three Pulitzer Prizes and two Livingston Awards.

 

Sponsored by the Knight Foundation

Livingston winners discuss how to build trust at The Power of Narrative conference

Claire Galofaro and Ellen GablerBuilding Trust: How to report when your subjects and sources distrust the media.

March 25 | 10:15 – 11:15 a.m.
Boston University
George Sherman Union

 

 

Claire Galofaro won the Livingston Award this year for her portraits of rural Appalachia on the brink of extinction. From examining the rise of Donald Trump in real time to documenting a day in a small West Virginia city where 28 people overdosed in a four-hour period, there were no shortcuts to building the trust she needed to tell the stories of local residents at a time when many were feeling forgotten. Livingston Award winners Claire Galofaro and Ellen Gabler will share how to report when your subjects and sources distrust the media.

Speaker:

  • Claire Galofaro, 2017 Livingston Award winner for the Associated Press series “Surviving Appalachia,” a devastating portrait of economic despair and a rural landscape on the brink of extinction. Galofaro is a correspondent for the Associated Press, helping to lead news coverage of Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. She previously reported for The Courier Journal (Louisville, Ky.), The New Orleans Advocate, The Times-Picayune, Outside and the Bristol Herald-Courier in the Appalachian mountains of southwest Virginia.

Moderator:

  • Moderator: Ellen Gabler, 2014 Livingston winner, for “Deadly Delays,” an investigation found that systematic delays in testing blood samples of newborn babies for deadly disorders led to preventable deaths and disabilities Gabler is an investigative reporter at The New York Times. Before starting at the Times in April 2017,  she worked for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel as a reporter and deputy investigations editor.  In addition to the 2013 Livingston Award, Gabler was a Gerald Loeb and IRE finalist, and winner of the Pulliam First Amendment Award in 2016.

China’s Soft Power: Understanding Beijing’s Growing Worldwide Influence

Louisa Lim, Mark Magnier and Dayo Aiyetan

Knight-Wallace Fellows Louisa Lim, Mark Magnier and Dayo Aiyetan at the Eisendrath Symposium

March 20, 2018 | 3 p.m.
Rackham Amphitheatre, fourth floor
915 Washington Street, Ann Arbor

Watch the discussion
Have a question about the topic? Tweet using #WallaceHouse.

 

 

On stage with the foreign correspondents of Wallace House
China’s move to change the constitution, allowing President Xi Jinping to remain in power, could have a major impact on its global influence. A panel of Knight-Wallace international journalists examines China’s growing clout and how this power is being deployed around the world, with implications for media, academia and the entertainment industry. Is Beijing already influencing what we read and watch or are fears of its influence overblown?

The Eisendrath Symposium honors Charles R. Eisendrath, former director of Wallace House, and his lifelong commitment to international journalism.

 

About the Speakers
Dayo Aiyetan is a 2018 Knight-Wallace Fellow,  investigative reporter and founder and executive director of the International Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news agency in Abuja, Nigeria. In this role, he has trained more than 100 reporters, aiming to promote a culture of data-driven accountability journalism in Nigeria.

Louisa Lim is a 2014 Knight-Wallace Fellow and the author of “The People’s Republic of Amnesia; Tiananmen Revisited.” She reported from China for a decade for NPR and the BBC. She is now a senior lecturer in Audio Visual Journalism at the University of Melbourne and the co-host of the “Little Red Podcast,” a monthly podcast focusing on China beyond the Beijing beltway.

Mark Magnier is a 2018 Knight-Wallace Fellow and the Beijing-based China economics editor for The Wall Street Journal, where he oversees coverage of the world’s second-largest economy and its seismic impact on Chinese society and the rest of the world. Previously, he served as bureau chief in New Delhi, Beijing and Tokyo for the Los Angeles Times.

 

About the Moderator
Mary Gallagher is a professor of political science at the University of Michigan, where she is also the director of the Center for Chinese Studies, and a faculty associate at the Center for Comparative Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research. Her research areas are Chinese politics, comparative politics of transitional and developing states, and law and society.

 

Free and open to the public.

For questions about the event email: [email protected]

This event is produced with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Michigan Radio is a co-sponsor of the event.

Wallace House Presents Bret Stephens of The New York Times

Bret Stephens
Bret Stephens, New York Times columnist

“Free Speech and the Necessity of Discomfort”

February 20, 2018 | 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre
University of Michigan
911 N. University Avenue
Free and open to the public

View video »

Join the conversation

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens calls disagreement “the most vital ingredient of any decent society.” Being able to reasonably take issue with an asserted stance or belief, he argues, enlarges our perspectives and energizes our progress. Shutting down disagreeable speech does more to imperil our principles than uphold them. Yet in this era of coarse polarization, the art of thoughtful disagreement has given way to hostile close-mindedness. And tolerance is often misinterpreted as the absence of discomfort.

Join Bret Stephens and Wallace House for a provocative discussion on the role of social and personal discomfort in education and its necessity in a functional democracy.

About the Speaker

Bret L. Stephens joined The New York Times as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2017. He came to The Times after a long career with The Wall Street Journal, where he was deputy editorial-page editor and, for 11 years, foreign affairs columnist. Before that, he was editor in chief of The Jerusalem Post. At The Post he oversaw the paper’s news, editorial and digital operations and its international editions, and also wrote a weekly column. He has reported from around the world and interviewed scores of world leaders.

Stephens is a Livingston Awards national judge. Winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, he is the author of “America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder.” He was raised in Mexico City and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and a master of science from the London School of Economics. He lives in New York and Hamburg, Germany.

For questions about the event email: [email protected]

Co-sponsored by U-M College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.
This is a U-M 2018 series event “Speech and Inclusion: Recognizing Conflict and Building Tools for Engagement.”

Wallace House Presents NPR’s Joshua Johnson and “1A”

Joshua Johnson in 1A's studio
Joshua Johnson, host of NPR’s daily program “1A”

“Speak Freely: Debating the First Amendment in a Changing America”

February 15, 2018 | 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Rackham Auditorium
915 E. Washington Street
Free and open to the public

Watch the video»

Experience the Show

Join Wallace House and Michigan Radio for a special event with NPR’s daily talk show, “1A.” Joshua Johnson and his panel of guests will examine the First Amendment, free speech and what it means in a divided America. The discussion is of particular urgency and value, as the debate over allowing white supremacist Richard Spencer to speak at universities, including our own, rages across college campuses.  Come and participate in the national conversation, meet the production team and experience the show.

About “1A”

“1A” is an NPR daily radio program. Host, Joshua Johnson, convenes a national conversation about the most important issues of our time. The show takes a deep and unflinching look at America, bringing context and insight to stories unfolding across the country and the world. The program, production of WAMU in Washington, D.C., airs on more than 200 NPR stations and can be heard on Michigan Radio every Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to noon.

About Joshua Johnson

Joshua Johnson is host of “1A,” one of the most important daily conversations in America. Before joining “1A” at WAMU, he co-created and hosted the provocative nationwide public radio series, “Truth Be Told,” which explored race in America. Johnson also taught podcasting at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. He is an active member of the National Association of Black Journalists. Johnson began his public radio career helping launch a unique regional news partnership between Miami’s NPR station, WLRN, and The Miami Herald. Then he served for over five years as morning news host for KQED in San Francisco.

“2018 Speech and Inclusion: Recognizing Conflict for Building Tools for Engagement” Series

The series invites students, faculty and staff to openly discuss, listen and engage with differing views on free speech and to advocate for voices that have historically been silenced – important issues that continue to challenge both our campus and the nation.

Sponsored by several U-M units and part of overall Diversity, Equity & Inclusion efforts on campus, this series of events explores how views about speech and inclusion play out in politics, culture, higher education, sports and journalism, and how to engage in productive conversation that can promote a positive campus environment and help the community more deeply understand these complicated issues.

For questions about the event email: [email protected]

This is a U-M 2018 series event “Speech and Inclusion: Recognizing Conflict and Building Tools for Engagement.”

Michigan Radio is a co-sponsor.

The Livingston Lectures with Brooke Jarvis

Brooke Jarvis, Ann Lin and Jason De Leon

“Beyond the Wall:
The Human Toll of Border Crossings”

January 31, 2018 | 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Annenberg Auditorium

Free and open to the public
Reception with speakers following the event.
Watch the discussion »

A Conversation with Brooke Jarvis, Ann Lin and Jason De León

In the public debate over immigration policy, the mortal toll of border crossings are too often faceless statistics. A Livingston Award-winning journalist, a MacArthur Genius and anthropologist, and a U-M public policy expert will share the stories and findings behind immigration statistics and discuss the complexities, ramifications and human lives that are involved in clandestine migration.

About the Speakers

Brooke Jarvis is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine and The California Sunday Magazine. Her work has been anthologized in “The Best American Science and Nature Writing” and her story about working for a year at a remote leper colony in Hawaii was included in the collection “Love and Ruin.” Jarvis received the 2017 Livingston Award for national reporting for her feature story “Unclaimed,” the story of an anonymous man, an undocumented immigrant kept alive by machines for nearly 17 years in a San Diego hospital, and the networks of immigrant families that search for their missing loved ones.

Jason De León is an associate professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan and director of the Undocumented Migration Project (UMP). His research interests include theories of violence, materiality, death and mourning, Latin American migration, crime and forensic analyses, and archaeology of the contemporary. De León was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2017.

About the Moderator

Ann Lin is Associate Professor of Public Policy in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She teaches courses on public policy implementation, gender and politics, qualitative research methods and immigration. Lin is currently studying potential immigration policies and the beliefs of American immigrants with a special focus on Arab Americans.

This Livingston Lecture event is co-sponsored by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the International Policy Center.

This Livingston Lecture event is produced with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

An MLK Symposium Event with Lydia Polgreen

Lydia Polgreen
Lydia Polgreen, editor-in-chief of HuffPost and 2009 Livingston Award winner

“Who Gets to Define American Values”
with Lydia Polgreen

January 16, 2018 | 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Rackham Amphitheatre
University of Michigan
915 E. Washington Street
Free and open to the public

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Join the conversation

Is kneeling during the national anthem a show of disrespect or a display of patriotism? Is extending a welcome to immigrants and refugees central to American ideals or a threat to them? Is the Confederate flag a symbol of heritage or racism? The social, cultural and political fabric of the country is increasingly torn by uncivil debates about the essence of American values. Lydia Polgreen, editor-in-chief of HuffPost and 2009 Livingston Award winner, will discuss the vital role of journalism and a free press in a thriving democracy and its responsibility in the current populist moment.

Fresh off the Listen to America road trip, a 25-city bus tour to engage with people and communities that feel left out of dominant national narratives, Polgreen will address the legacy and current relevance of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and engage the audience in a conversation about voice, power and participation in civil society.

About the Speaker

Polgreen was named editor-in-chief of HuffPost in December 2016 after spending nearly 15 years at The New York Times. There she led an initiative to expand its audience outside the United States, with an initial focus on Latin America. Previously, she was Deputy International Editor, South Africa bureau chief, correspondent for the New Delhi bureau and chief of the West Africa bureau. Before joining The Times, Polgreen was a reporter in Florida and New York state. She began her career as assistant editor and business manager for The Washington (D.C.) Monthly.

Polgreen was a 2006 recipient of the George Polk Award for foreign reporting. She received the 2009 Livingston Award for international reporting for her series, “The Spoils,” an account of how mineral wealth brought misery and exploitation to much of Africa. In 2007, she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

 

For questions about the event email: [email protected]

This is a 2018 Annual U-M Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium event.

Co-sponsored by the Department of History, Department of American Culture and Department of English Language and Literature.

Wallace House Presents Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Fahrenthold

David Fahrenthold
David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post

“Trump, Twitter and Fake News: How Journalists Can Build Credibility by Opening Up Their Work” with David Fahrenthold

October 26, 2017 | 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre

View Video »

 

 

How should the press adapt when those in power use the epithet “fake news” to attack real reporting? Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post, offers suggestions for both reporters and news consumers on navigating this new era. He will discuss how journalists can open up their own reporting process through social media, show the public the work that underlies their stories and invite readers in as collaborators. He shares how reporters and readers can avoid passing on actual fake news, by examining the news sources and the individual stories that they read, especially those stories and sources that confirm their own views of the world.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Fahrenthold used social media to follow-up on Donald Trump’s pledge to donate money to veterans groups. Posting his reporter’s notes on Twitter to solicit leads, Fahrenthold uncovered Trump’s questionable charitable practices and found no evidence that Trump donated money to veterans groups as he’d claimed. Fahrenthold was also the first reporter to reveal the existence of the “Access Hollywood” 2005 video in which Trump bragged about groping women. For his series of stories, Fahrenthold won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.

A graduate of Harvard, Fahrenthold has been at The Washington Post since 2000. There he reports on President Trump’s businesses and conflicts of interest. He previously covered the police in Washington, D.C., the environment, New England, Congress and the federal bureaucracy for the paper.

This event is co-sponsored by Communication Studies, the Department of English Language and Literature and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

The 32nd Graham Hovey Lecture

“Piercing the Bubble: Politics, Media and America’s Prosperity Gap” with Alec MacGillis

September 14, 2017

Wallace House Gardens
620 Oxford Road, Ann Arbor

Watch the video recording.

Alec MacGillis, political reporter for ProPublica and 2011 Knight-Wallace Fellow will deliver the 32nd Graham Hovey Lecture. He will address income inequality in the U.S. and the perilous implications of winner-take-all cities and left-behind places.

His reporting and analysis of blue collar voters in the 2016 presidential election earned him the 2017 Polk Award for National Reporting and the 2017 Scripps-Howard Award.  This work included his piece, “Revenge of the Forgotten Class,” which was published the morning after the election and drove much of the post-election conversation. His recent investigation for ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine titled “Jared Kushner’s Other Real Estate Empire,” exposed the disreputable landlord practices of the president’s son-in-law and advisor.

MacGillis is also the recipient of the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting. He is the author of “The Cynic,” a biography of Senator Mitch McConnell.

MacGillis was previously a senior editor at The New Republic and a national reporter for The Washington Post. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic and The New York Times Magazine.

He earned a B.A. in history and English from Yale University. As a Knight-Wallace Fellow in 2010-2011, MacGillis studied income inequality. His subsequent reporting examined the culprits and costs of this issue with stories ranging from the influence of corporations on public policy to the disruption of Democratic Party strongholds.

The annual lecture recognizes a Knight-Wallace journalist whose career exemplifies the benefits of a fellowship at the University of Michigan and whose ensuing work is at the forefront of national conversation. The event is named for the late Graham Hovey, director of the fellowship program from 1980 to 1986 and a distinguished journalist for The New York Times.

Welcome remarks by Liz Barry, Special Counsel to the President.

A reception followed the lecture.

Watch the video recording.

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An IRE Event with 2017 Livingston Winners

Taub, Jarvis, Chavez

From the human toll of border crossings to Assad’s authorization of mass killings: Exploring Livingston Award winning stories with the Knight Foundation

June 22, 2017 | 5 – 6 p.m.
Grand Canyon 9-10, first floor
JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa
5350 East Marriott Drive
Phoenix, Arizona

 

 

IRE conference attendees can meet the 2017 Livingston Award winners and learn how these reporters transformed their story ideas into award-winning investigations. From tracking down sources to crafting narratives, they will examine ways to dig deeper and tell powerful stories.

Speakers:

  • Panelist: Brooke Jarvis, 2017 Livingston Award winner for “Unclaimed,” from The California Sunday Magazine, an investigative narrative about an unidentified migrant bed-bound in a San Diego hospital for 16 years and the networks of immigrant families searching for their missing loved ones.
  • Panelist: Ben Taub, 2017 Livingston Award winner for “The Assad Files,” from The New Yorker, an investigative feature exposing a complex, dangerous operation to capture top-secret documents that link mass torture and killings in Syria to the highest levels of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime..
  • Moderator: Stella Chavez, Livingston Awards judge and 2007 Livingston winner, for “Yolanda’s Crossing,” an investigation into a sexually-abused Mexican girl abducted and smuggled across the U.S. border.

This event is presented by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.