Crime Coverage Summit: New Orleans

The 2024 Crime Coverage Summit: New Orleans will gather broadcast news leaders and journalists to think critically and work collaboratively to address crime coverage in TV news. This education and training opportunity from RTDNA and the National Press Foundation is designed to help journalists build on successful crime coverage tactics in their newsrooms and throughout the industry. 

We'll examine coverage of race and juveniles, gun violence, dealing with police, mental health in your newsroom and more, mixing in training from experts with peer-to-peer sharing and collaboration.  

The 2024 Crime Coverage Summit: New Orleans will be held Jan. 17-19 at the Hyatt Centric French Quarter New Orleans. Registration is just $25, and travel scholarships, supported by a sponsorship from Arnold Ventures and administered by RTDNA, are available. Capacity for both registration and scholarships is limited. 

RTDNA and NPF are solely responsible for summit programming. 

The 2024 Crime Coverage Summits build off the success of the 2023 Summit, which drew rave reviews. When asked on a scale of 1-10 if they would recommend this event in the future, attendees gave the 2023 Crime Coverage Summit an average score of 9.48. In a column for TVNewsCheck, Emily Barr wrote “summits like this one have the power to effect real change.” 

Barr said she had been thinking a lot about the way TV news covers crime and suggested there must be a better way. “Thanks to the National Press Foundation, the Radio Television Digital News Association and Arnold Ventures, I believe a new path is being forged.”

We hope you will join us on that journey! 

Tentative Schedule
_{Subject to Change}

Location

Hyatt Centric French Quarter New Orleans
819 Canal Street
New Orleans, LA 70112

Wednesday, Jan. 17

6:30 - 8 p.m. // Welcome Happy Hour 
The Atrium, 2nd Floor 

Thursday, Jan. 18
(All events in D.H. Holmes Room, 1st Floor)

8:30 - 9:30 a.m. // Breakfast & Keynote Address
Alberto R. Gonzales, Former U.S. Attorney General

9:45 - 10:45 a.m. // Dealing with Police
Tony Plohetski, National Murrow winner, Investigative Reporter, KVUE and Austin American Statesman

10:55 - 11:55 a.m. // Collaborate: Dealing with Police

12 - 1:30 p.m. // Lunch & Fireside Chat with Local Law Enforcement 
Moderator: Darryl Forges, Anchor, WDSU
Jason Williams, District Attorney, Orleans Parish
Anne Kirkpatrick, Superintendent, New Orleans Police Department
Col. Robert Hodges, Director, Louisiana State Police

1:45 - 2:45 p.m. // Covering Race
Alanah Odoms, Executive Director, ACLU Louisiana

3 - 4 p.m. // Coverage of Juveniles
Hon. Ranord Darensburg, Chief Judge, New Orleans Juvenile Court System

4:15 - 5:15 p.m. // Collaborate: Race and Juvenile Justice Coverage

Friday, Jan. 19
(All events in D.H. Holmes Room, 1st Floor)

8:00 a.m. // Breakfast

8:30 - 9:30 a.m. // Media Bias Barrier: Covering Missing Persons Cases

Moderator: Josh Mankiewicz, Correspondent, Dateline NBC
Natalie Wilson, Co-Founder, The Black and Missing Foundation
Derrica Wilson, Co-Founder,  The Black and Missing Foundation
Rebkah Howard, Board Chair, The Black and Missing Foundation
Jonathan Franklin, Reporter, NPR

9:45 - 10:45 a.m. // Gun Violence
Ernest Johnson, Executive Director, Ubuntu Village
Chip Brownlee, Correspondent, The Trace

11 a.m. - 12 p.m. // Mental Health in Your Newsroom
Melissa Kaiser, MelKai Consulting

12 - 1 p.m. // Lunch & Collaborate

1 - 1:30 p.m. // Closing