News

New events for the end of the year

The end of 2023 is coming, and lots of events are getting scheduled for 2024! WikiConference North America is happening this week in Toronto, and the AIJC’s annual gathering takes place later this month. Keep an eye on this newsletter for more events as they get added in the new year! Some community favorites like NICAR, IJF and Dataharvest have been announced for the coming months. Worth a Read: The Institute for Nonprofit News released a report on diversity in the nonprofit news sector and found that the racial and ethnic composition of staff at nonprofit news organizations is largely similar to the US population.

Bloomberg opens a hiring spree for its data teams

Bloomberg is hiring around 40 new journalists for its data journalism and visualization teams. The open positions include data visualization reporters, editors, engineers and team leaders. The openings are also global. The jobs themselves are based in Hong Kong, London and New York, but will work with Bloomberg colleagues in Taipei, London, New York, Washington DC and San Francisco. Worth a Read: The European Press Prize announced a new category to celebrate “data journalism and challenges the boundaries of journalism.

Stay in touch for more AI trainings from Hacks/Hackers

The Knight Center had a fantastic turnout for its course “How to use ChatGPT and other generative AI tools in your newsroom.” The MOOC featured Hacks/Hackers AI researcher-in-residence Sil Hamilton, as well as the Associated Press’s Aimee Rineheart. The four-week course concluded this week. As AI becomes more and more embedded into newsrooms, Hacks/Hackers looks forward to finding ways to contribute to the discussion and spread the knowledge. Keep an eye out for more updates!

New AI tools from the Associated Press

As part of its Local News AI initiative, the Associated Press is offering five free “AI-powered products," including automated safety incidents, weather alert translation, video transcription, email pitch sorting, and public meeting transcript creation. They’re hosting a webinar on Oct. 26 to show how to use the tools, and you can register to attend here. You can also answer a short survey on which of these tools would most benefit your newsroom.

New tools and techniques for DEI in data journalism

This week, the European Journalism Centre is hosting a News Impact Summit on climate journalism. The in-person conference in Lisbon will also announce the winner of the Climate Journalism Award. Also, this weekend Investigative Reporters and Editors is hosting AccessFest, an online conference on belonging, equity, and inclusion in newsrooms. AccessFest is entirely online and includes sessions on dataviz, data analysis and online tools. Worth a Read: Burnt Toast creator Virginia Sole-Smith talked to Inbox Collective about how she built a product that now brings in a six-figure income.

Follow the Media Party this week

The famous Buenos Aires Media Party is here! This year, the conference will focus a lot on AI, especially the ethics, security, and privacy surrounding it. If you’re not in Argentina, you can keep an eye out for the #MediaParty hashtag on social media. The Knight Center’s class on generative AI has started strong, with nearly 8,000 people signed up from almost 150 countries. The online course, featuring Hacks/Hackers AI researcher-in-residence Sil Hamilton, started last week.

Register for the Buenos Aires Media Party!

The famous Buenos Aires Media Party is happening next week! This year, the conference’s main focus will be AI, with a concentration in three key areas: ethics, security, and privacy. The three pillars of the conference are Product, Audience and Monetization. Over 2,000 people attend the largest Hacks/Hackers gathering. It takes place from October 5-7 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and registration is free! Worth a Read: Apple Podcasts recently announced a design overhaul, what may be part of a larger trend of monetizing podcasts.

Journalism groups ask Press Forward to distribute funding equitably

The Press Forward fund, a $500 million investment over five years, aims to bolster the structure of local news in the US. The coalition is led by the MacArthur Foundation and includes nearly two dozen other funders, including the Lenfest Institute and the Knight Foundation. A group of journalism organizations, including the National Association of Black Journalists, the Online News Association, and OpenNews, issued an open letter to Press Forward, asking the coalition to prioritize equitable distribution of the fund to underrepresented voices.

Register for our free AI class

Registration is now open for our free month-long class on “How to use ChatGPT and other generative AI tools in your newsroom”! Hacks/Hackers, along with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas is providing the online course in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The course runs from September 25 through October 22, and you can learn more about the course on its website here. Worth a Read: When multi-line line charts start to look like multi-colored spaghetti, Nightingale wrote about some creative, “saucy” solutions to more clearly present the data.

We're hiring at Hacks/Hackers

Hacks/Hackers is hiring for two positions related to our NSF-funded Analysis and Response for Toolkit for Trust (ARTT) project: A Researcher to conduct research, coordinate efforts and contribute to the creation of related materials. A Community Coordinator to shape and maintain a supportive user community, and ensure the success of the expert-informed software tool aimed at addressing vaccine hesitancy and misinformation. Both jobs are remote, but applicants must be authorized to work in the U.