ISOJ Celebrates a Successful New Hybrid Model and Announces Dates for 2023 Conference

(Austin, TX) – The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas announces the dates for next year’s 24th International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ) as April 14 – 15, 2023.

After notable success with the 2020 and 2021 online-only formatting of ISOJ, the Knight Center took on a new challenge by producing ISOJ 2022 in an innovative hybrid format that connected journalists, media executives and journalism professors and students from over 80 countries.

For more than 20 years, ISOJ has been streamed live on the web, and all the videos of all symposia, since 1999, are available online. However, the hybrid model developed for the 2022 conference went beyond the web streaming, adding other ways to enhance remote participation.

Two examples of those enhancements: Virtual attendees were invited to have direct conversations with selected speakers, in small group video calls; and a video feed showed the virtual attendees the welcome party in Austin. They were also able to have their own party online simultaneously, using a software that allowed them to mingle (similar to the in-person party), introduce themselves to one another, and start video conversations in small groups.

“We are very happy with the results of ISOJ 2022, with its hybrid-mode experimentations, and we can’t wait to introduce more innovative ways for remote participation in April of 2023,” said professor Rosental Alves, founder of ISOJ and the Knight Center. “Yes, in-person conferences are great, especially because of the networking, the opportunity to interact with speakers and other attendees. But there are new ways to allow active participation of remote attendees, and we will continue to work on this innovative, pioneering hybrid model.”

ISOJ 2022 had 1,227 participants, 296 in person and 931 online. With topics ranging from how metaverse and web3 will affect journalism to audio storytelling, diversity in the newsrooms, mental health and wellbeing of journalists, the growth of nonprofit journalism in the U.S., and the attacks to press freedom around the world, ISOJ 2022 was met with high praise and intense engagement.

Twitter was flooded with comments, questions, and retweets using the #ISOJ2022 hashtag. With voices like Jorge Ramos, who discussed how journalism is not a profession for people who want to be silent; to María Lilly Delgado, a Nicaraguan journalist working in exile whose talk sparked a standing ovation with her words of courage addressing the persecution of journalists around the world.

The photo galleries and News Section of ISOJ.org provide more highlights of the event as well as further in-depth coverage on the topics discussed. The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas is now giving access to the public to watch all sessions from ISOJ 2022. The videos are available on the ISOJ 2022 archive page, edited session-by-session, and also in YouTube, unedited playlists: the original versions in English and with simultaneous interpretation in Spanish.

More information about registration and panels for ISOJ 2023 will be released soon.