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University of Wisconsin–Madison

3 winners of 2016 Pulitzer Prizes to speak at conference

Journalists from two reporting teams who earned Pulitzer Prizes Monday will participate in the Center for Journalism Ethics conference April 29.

The conference – Race, Ethnicity and Journalism Ethics – will explore critical questions surrounding how journalists reflect and represent racial diversity through news coverage.

One important intersection between news and race involves coverage of education. Lisa Gartner of the Tampa Bay Times will discuss her team’s “Failure Factories” series, which earned a 2016 Pulitzer for Local Reporting. The series explored political decisions that resulted in degradation of a county’s schools, with disastrous consequences for black students.

An Associated Press team of journalists won the 2016 Pulitzer for Public Service for a deep investigation into slave labor in the international seafood trade. The team’s careful consideration of risk and ethical choices in reporting also earned them the Center’s Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics. Reporters Martha Mendoza and Robin McDowell will receive the award on behalf of the entire team and reflect on their reporting and decision-making during a luncheon session at the conference.

Online registration for the conference, which includes the luncheon, is open through Friday, April 22. Visit http://go.wisc.edu/ethics2016 to register.

In addition to these prize-winning journalists, 15 expert panelists are on board to address key questions through four panels.

  • Representing Race: Language, Imagery, Sources and Issues for Journalists
  • Education Matters: Covering Racial Dynamics and Examining Journalism’s Role
  • Questions of Justice: Crime, Inequality and News Media
  • Tomorrow’s Work: Moving Forward on Race and Journalism

The panelists will join Nikole Hannah-Jones, who will deliver the keynote address at 9 a.m. Hannah-Jones reports on racial injustice for the New York Times Magazine and recently won a George Polk Award for a “This American Life” series on school integration and resistance to it.

The conference is supported by generous donations from the Gannett Foundation, the Evjue Foundation, the Wisconsin State Journal, the Ethics & Excellence in Journalism Foundation, WPS Health Solutions, the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association and the Wisconsin Newspaper Association.

This is the eighth annual conference of the Center of Journalism Ethics, housed in UW-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Founded in 2008, the Center’s mission is to foster vigorous debate about ethical practices in journalism and provide a resource for producers, consumers and students of journalism.

For a full slate of panelists and registration information, visit http://go.wisc.edu/ethics2016.

Online conference registration is here.

Read more about the conference.

This post was updated April 20.