In this webinar, hosted by Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), we’ll examine how government officials are increasingly labeling routine accountability reporting as “doxxing.” That term originally meant exposing personal information about private people to harass them. But now, government officials are extending it to publication of newsworthy information about public officials. They are intentionally confusing the American public about the role of journalism and even threatening legal action against journalists, newsrooms, and ordinary people for publishing information the public has a right to know.

We’ll hear from journalists who have faced these “doxxing” accusations firsthand:
– Vittoria Elliott, reporter at Wired covering platforms and power
– Gregory Royal Pratt, investigative reporter at the Chicago Tribune
– Doug Sovern, award-winning political reporter, formerly of KCBS Radio
– Charlie Kratovil, founder and editor of New Brunswick Today
– Moderated by Caitlin Vogus, senior adviser, FPF From federal threats against reporters covering Immigration and Customs Enforcement to state laws restricting what journalists can publish about police, government officials are citing “doxxing” to threaten press freedom. When accountability is reframed as harassment, it chills reporting and limits the public’s access to information about how power is exercised.

Traditional advertising may get impressions, but promotions win on engagement and truly measurable results for your advertisers. Pairing interactive promotions with branded content creates high‑value audience engagement that translates into leads, richer audience data, and repeatable revenue.

We’ll explore why advertisers are shifting budgets toward interactive experiences—sweepstakes, quizzes, native storytelling—and how you can turn these formats into recurring revenue streams. We’ll break down campaign ideas, real-world success stories, and strategies to boost advertiser ROI, deliver measurable results, and grow your advertising revenue.

Learn how your state’s open meeting law has changed during the last four years and what developments — for better or worse — may be on the horizon. By attending this lesson, you’ll get a full update to supplement everything you learned in our previous open meeting law lessons. Haven’t watched those lessons? You can find them here: https://nefac.org/foiguide/

Speaker

Samuel Thomas
Morgan Lewis

Sam Thomas counsels companies and content creators across the media ecosystem—including news, entertainment, publishing, interactive, and social media—to navigate speech, intellectual property, First Amendment, shareholder, and commercial disputes in state and federal court.

A contributing author to the Massachusetts Tort Law Manual on defamation and a lecturer for the New England First Amendment Coalition on subjects including the right to record and Massachusetts’ Public Records Law, his experience helps new and legacy media outlets throughout the news reporting process—from getting access to records through pre-publication review and defamation defense.

Nonprofits are raising millions of dollars with fundraising sweepstakes… and you can reach the same level of success. Learn how to dial into untapped sweepstakes potential with the experts at TapKat. With TapKat’s proven approach to fundraising sweepstakes, even small nonprofits are raising millions of dollars, significantly growing their donor base, and gaining exposure. This hour-long, action-packed webinar will showcase case studies and specific examples of tools you can put into practice right away.

According to the Pew-Knight Initiative, about half of Americans say news isn’t relevant to their lives. Join Poynter Beat Academy and a leading expert from Pew Research Center on Thursday, March 12, at 1 p.m. Eastern to unpack findings from the Pew-Knight Initiative about how the public is drifting away from news, how they come across it, and what they do to check what they see.

Overview

• Explore recent studies on how Americans view journalists in the digital age.
• Delve into lessons from news influencers and grasp what moves the needle for consumers.
• Get your questions answered during the live session and access resource materials in the course afterwards.

Webinar offered free of charge thanks to the support from the Pew-Knight Initiative.