Symposium

Feb. 13, Investigative Journalism Symposium

Nobel Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa will deliver the keynote address at 6 p.m. on Feb. 13 in Presidents Hall in Franklin Hall at The Media School at Indiana University. Her speech will conclude an afternoon-long symposium featuring award-winning journalists from 60 Minutes, IndyStar, InvestigateTV, ESPN, Louisville Courier Journal, Washington Post, Columbia University and McClatchy.

Full schedule:

1 p.m.: Welcome

  • Kathleen Johnston, Arnolt Center director

1:15 – 2:30 p.m.: News panel

  • Tim Evans, IndyStar
  • Daniela Molina, InvestigateTV/ Gray Media
  • Henry Schuster, 60 Minutes
  • Moderator: Erica Henry, independent journalist

2:45 – 4 p.m.: Sports panel

  • Chris Buckle, ESPN
  • Stephanie Kuzydym, Louisville Courier Journal
  • Joe Tone, Washington Post
  • Moderator: Mike Wells, Indiana University

4:15 – 5:30 p.m.: AI panel

  • Tyler Dukes, McClatchy
  • Jonathan Soma, Columbia University
  • TBA
  • Moderator: Gerry Lanosga, Indiana University

6 – 7 p.m.: Keynote

  • Maria Ressa, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize and CEO, Rappler, Philippines

The panels and keynote address are free and open to all students, faculty, staff, journalists and the general public, though people are asked to preregister:

Investigative Symposium Registration

Name(Required)

See schedules from past symposia: 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Speaker bios:

Maria Ressa

Maria Ressa co-founded Rappler, the top digital only news site that is leading the fight for press freedom in the Philippines. As Rappler’s CEO, Ressa has endured constant political harassment and arrests by the Duterte government, forced to post bail 10 times to stay free. Rappler’s battle for truth and democracy is the subject of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival documentary, “A Thousand Cuts.”

For her courage and journalistic integrity, Ressa has received numerous accolades. In October 2021, she was one of two journalists awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”

In 2022, she was appointed by the United Nations secretary-general to the Leadership Panel of the Internet Governance Forum and serves as its vice-chair.

She is a professor of practice at the Institute of Global Politics at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where she leads projects related to artificial intelligence and democracy.

Ressa authored “Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of Al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia” and “From Bin Laden to Facebook.” Her most recent book, “How to Stand Up to a Dictator,” was released in November 2022 and has been translated into more than 20 languages.

Ressa focuses critical attention on the breakdown of our global information ecosystem and how interconnected communities of action can hold the line to protect democratic values.

Panelists:

Tim Evans

 

Daniela Molina

Molina is a bilingual investigative journalist/producer who has great interest in trafficking and health care stories. Throughout her time at InvestigateTV she has uncovered nursing home abuse, desecration of Black cemeteries, lack of updated emergency medical kits on airlines and has exposed secrecy in military medical malpractice. Daniela Molina also has a Spanish financial consumer segment called “Cuidando Su Billetera” that airs on Gray Media Group’s Telemundo stations. She is also a graduate of Indiana University and holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree for journalism. She is the first graduating class from the IU Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism.

Henry Schuster

Schuster is an award-winning producer for CBS News’ 60 Minutes with assignments including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and the border of Ukraine. His piece on the lack of health care for the uninsured in 2008 and work being done by Remote Area Medical prompted Congressional hearings and led to that issue taking center stage during and after the election of Barack Obama. Schuster previously worked at CNN where he won Peabodys, Emmys and duPonts for his coverage of Hurricane Katrina, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the growth of al Qaeda. He is the author of “Hunting Eric Rudolph,” a narrative of manhunt for the Olympic Park bomber.  Schuster graduated from Emory University and Cambridge University and did a fellowship at the University of Chicago. He and his wife, Sandra, live in Beaufort, South Carolina.

Chris Buckle

Buckle, who joined ESPN in 2010, was named vice president, investigative journalism in March 2020, and leads ESPN’s award-winning investigative and enterprise journalism unit. Previously, Buckle was the executive editor of the investigative and enterprise unit. He has managed and edited myriad impactful, cross-platform investigative projects, such as Peabody Award-winners “Spartan Silence” and “NFL at a Crossroads: Investigating a Health Crisis.” His teams have received a 2014 duPont Award, multiple Emmy Awards and the APSE Investigative Award. Before joining ESPN, Buckle had a career in newspapers of all sizes; he joined ESPN from being the personal finance editor at USA Today. He also was an assistant managing editor at The Dallas Morning News. An avid cyclist and triathlete, Buckle graduated from Purdue University and resides in Connecticut.

Stephanie Kuzydym

Kuzydym is a sports enterprise and investigative reporter for The Louisville Courier Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network. For the last decade, Kuzydym’s reporting largely focused on the health and safety of athletes. In “Safer Sidelines,” Kuzydym uncovered the many ways high schools, athletic associations and lawmakers have failed to prepare for the worst-case scenario – sudden death in sports. The project included a first-of-its-kind searchable database of U.S. athlete deaths, as well as a survey and expert assessment of athletic emergency action plans for Kentucky high schools. Kuzydym graduated with a journalism degree from Indiana University in 2012. She has reported for both print and broadcast, in newsrooms in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, Florida, Oklahoma and Texas, but her favorite newsroom remains the Indiana Daily Student.

Joe Tone

Tone is an editor in the sports department of The Washington Post, where he leads a team of investigative and enterprise reporters whose work probes the intersection of sports with politics, power, money and culture. Before joining The Post in 2019, Tone served as the deputy Washington bureau chief for VICE News Tonight, HBO’s Emmy Award-winning news show. Before that, he spent a decade as a reporter and editor in alternative weekly newspapers, producing award-winning narrative and accountability journalism across a variety of subjects, including sports, politics, immigration and the environment. Tone is also the author of a book, “Bones: Brothers, Horses, Cartels and the Borderland Dream,” published by One World in 2017 and a finalist for a PEN America award.

Tyler Dukes

Dukes is the lead editor for AI innovation in journalism at McClatchy Media, where he leads a small team of journalists that helps the company’s 30+ local newsrooms responsibly harness data, automation and artificial intelligence to elevate and strengthen their reporting. For nearly a decade, he’s taught undergraduate courses in data journalism at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. He was previously an investigative reporter at The News and Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he specialized in data and computational journalism. In 2017, he completed a fellowship at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Prior to joining the N&O, he worked as an investigative reporter on the state politics team at WRAL News, a locally owned television station.

Jonathan Soma

Soma is Knight Chair in Data Journalism at Columbia University, where he directs both the Data Journalism MS and the summer intensive Lede Program. He also regularly publishes free and open tutorials on everything from basic Python and analysis to visualization and machine learning. In the past, Soma has worked with organizations such as ProPublica, WNYC, and The New York Times. He currently focuses on helping under-resourced newsrooms make responsible, ethical use of artificial intelligence.