Meet four attendees of the 2024 iMEdD International Journalism Forum

University of Pennsylvania student Anna Vazhaeparambil photographs and talks to young journalists about their expectations as they take their first steps in the industry. What do journalists hope to get out of an international media conference? What do journalism students seek to learn from their seasoned colleagues’ experiences? And what are journalists most concerned about today? University of Pennsylvania student Anna Vazhaeparambil reports on the hopes and fears of journalists attending the 2024 iMEdD International Journalism Forum in Athens.

iMEdD Journalism Forum

Bringing investigative journalism into food lifestyle media

At iMEdD's International Journalism Forum, Miriam Wells, Tessa Pang, Silvia Lazzaris, and Thin Lei Win discussed how journalists can effectively report on what ends up on our plates and the importance of making stories about the food industry as engaging as content by food influencers. Graduate student Marco Postigo Storel from Columbia University selected excerpts from these discussions for YouTube Shorts as part of the Forum's Pop-Up Newsroom.

Journalism

Columbia University’s young reporters: from covering campus protests to Greece 

These young journalists found themselves on the frontlines of the 2024 Columbia University pro-Palestinian encampment, balancing the roles of students, activists, and reporters. Now they travel halfway around the world at the iMEdD International Journalism Forum to present their work to a room of top-tier journalists they look up to. Columbia University Graduate student Gaia Caramazza, who also covered the Columbia University protests talked to Editor-in-Chief, President, of the Columbia Daily Spectator Isabella Ramírez and Palestinian freelance fournalist and Jordan Media Institute faculty member, Jude Taha about the challenges they faced, for the Forum’s Pop-Up Newsroom.

Pop-up Newsroom '24

Deepfakes and attention retention  

What can we learn by focusing on how people react to manipulated or synthetic visual content? A multidisciplinary team of journalism professors attempted to challenge the 2024 iMEdD International Journalism Forum attendees’ misconceptions and cognitive biases by studying the effect deepfakes have on them at the Forum’s Media Village. Reported by University of Hong Kong journalism student Hiu Fung Alvin for the Forum’s Pop-Up Newsroom. 

Investigative Reporting

Covering Gaza and the challenge of access 

When reporting on war crimes in dangerous and inaccessible areas like Gaza journalists face immense challenges. During iMEdD’s International Journalism Forum, Guardian’s Manisha Ganguly and Al Jazeera English’s Gaza correspondent Youmna El Sayed discuss the difficulties of uncovering the truth in war zones, whether on the ground or from afar. Excerpts for Youtube shorts were selected by Ionian University journalism student Dimitris Remoundos, as part of the Forum’s pop-up newsroom.