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.: From the margins: Reporting on the most vulnerable
- Tim Evans, IndyStar
- Daniela Molina, InvestigateTV/ Gray Media
- Henry Schuster, 60 Minutes
- Moderator: Erica Henry, independent journalist
2:45 – 4 p.m.: Fair game: Investigating youth sports
- Chris Buckle, ESPN
- Stephanie Kuzydym, Louisville Courier Journal
- Joe Tone, Washington Post
- Moderator: Mike Wells, Indiana University
4:15 – 5:30 p.m.: Work smarter: Leveraging AI for investigative journalism
- Tyler Dukes, McClatchy
- Brant Houston, University of Illinois
- Jonathan Soma, Columbia University
- 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:
Thanks to our sponsors, Scripps Howard Fund, Lumina Foundation, Indy Pro SPJ, the Indiana Citizen, Gray Media, Indiana Broadcasters Association, Free Press Indiana, the Hoosier State Press Association Foundation and Hutton Honors College, and our partners, the Bloomington Press Club, Chalkbeat Indiana, Limestone Post, IndyStar, Indianapolis Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Black Journalists at Indiana University, National Association of Hispanic Journalists at Indiana University, Indianapolis Press Club Foundation, Indiana Capital Chronicle, The Media School at Indiana University, National Sports Journalism Center and the Indiana Daily Student.
For people unable to attend in person, the event will be livestreamed and archived at https://broadcast.iu.edu/events/investigative-journalism-symposium-2025.html.
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
Evans is investigations editor at The Indianapolis Star/IndyStar, where he has worked for more than 25 years. Evans has been involved in multiple investigative projects focused on vulnerable populations ranging from survivors of sexual misconduct, child abuse and prisoner mistreatment to real estate scams, unsolved crimes and shoddy nursing home care. He was a part of the IndyStar team that uncovered the prevalence of sexual abuse in gymnastics, including the crimes of former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, as was featured in the Emmy-winning Netflix documentary “Athlete A.” He is a member of the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame and recipient of numerous state and national awards, including the IRE Medal, O’Brien Fellowship Award for Impact in Public Service Journalism, University of Missouri Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, Freedom of Expression Award from the Newseum, and the Casey Medal for Meritorious Reporting on Children’s Issues.
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.
Brant Houston
Houston is a professor and Knight Chair of Investigative Reporting at the College of Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he oversees the award-winning CU-CitizenAccess.org, a newsroom providing watchdog and community news in central Illinois. He previously served as the executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors. Before joining IRE, he was an investigative reporter at U.S. daily newspapers specializing in data journalism. He has authored five editions of “Computer-Assisted Reporting: A Practical Guide” and co-authored three editions of “The Investigative Reporter’s Handbook.” His latest book is “Changing Models for Journalism: Reinventing the Newsroom.” He is co-founder and board chair of the Global Investigative Journalism Network, and co-founder and chair emeritus of the Institute for Nonprofit News. He also has taught investigative reporting in more than 30 countries.
Jonathan Soma
