The climate crisis is not just a reporting challenge—it is a leadership challenge. In an era where the stakes for humanity are unprecedented, real change in how we cover the climate crisis must star...
Fergus Bell
Fergus Bell is CEO and co-founder of fathm.
He is an experienced journalist, editor and leading expert in digital newsgathering, verification, newsroom innovation and collaborative journalism projects. Fergus’ experience spans both the business and editorial sides of the news industry.
He spent eight years as a journalist and producer at the Associated Press, where he became their first International Social Media and UGC Editor. He then headed up newsroom partnerships and innovation for digital newsgathering start-up, SAM Desk. In 2015 Fergus founded Dig Deeper Media - advising broadcasters, publishers and start-ups on social and digital newsgathering, newsroom transformation and innovation. In 2017 he co-founded Pop-Up Newsroom, a framework for collaborative journalism projects that has already seen success in the US, UK, India, Sweden and with the multi-award winning "Verificado" - an initiative designed to monitor for misinformation during the Mexican elections.
Fergus is a member of the Online News Association’s Board of Directors.
Events IJF 2025
First there was SMS (short message service), then there was MMS (multi media service). As the world adopts RCS (rich communciation services), can the news industry leverage this new technology as a ne...
Cross-field collaboration: how and why journalists and civil-society organizations around the world are working together
The panel will outline findings from a recently completed research project looking at collaboration between civil society and journalism organizations. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundatio...
We can’t afford for innovation to stall so what are the mechanisms, tools, processes and foresight we need to ensure newsroom innovation continues well into the late 2020s? From new ways of working ...
Much more than a text, more personal than a newsletter and way more control over data than social media - Direct Publishing is here and it is going to be a big deal for journalism! Publishers a...
The news industry pivots from tackling one fundamental challenge threatening our very existence to another. It is also fair to say that we have seen some of these things coming but not been able to ac...
Climate change, climate chaos, the global climate emergency – whatever you want to call the environmental crisis already impacting millions around the world and promising to impact millions more in ...
There is little doubt that 2018 has seen the rise of mass journalism collaborations to successfully tackle misinformation and navigate events at a scale that can’t be achieved by an individual organ...
With more than 1.5 billion people around the world using WhatsApp on a monthly basis it has fast become a resource of information and news for many. As the platform grows there have been challenges bu...
The role of social newsgathering in newsrooms has become more ethically complex than ever in recent months, as those who seek to disrupt disinformation and propaganda campaigns must adapt to an enemy ...
Trust in media and the fight against misinformation is a global problem that requires a global solution; it can never be solved within one region alone, or just by the richest newsrooms. Across the...
This session will help equip your newsroom with the knowledge and workflows that will allow you to work with speed and accuracy from the first tweet to publishing the story on your platform. We’ll f...
Electionland was a unique collaborative project to track and cover voting problems during the 2016 US elections across the whole country and in real-time. It was also the largest social newsgathering ...
In the last year, we’ve seen a number of breaking news events where content posted by eyewitnesses to social media has become a story in its own right. Whether that’s the hounding of students ca...
In this workshop, participants will learn how to set up systems that allow you to monitor social media effectively so you will be the first to find out when news breaks. Learn how to find eyewitness...
How are news media investing in and fostering innovation? Does this work better when launching a new start up, such as Ze.tt from the Zeit Online publisher, or creating a separate unit within the p...
We all need to be the first to run social and user-generated content when breaking news happens. That is the nature of a competitive news business. But what about asking for permission, or even wait...
As news events break, newsrooms need the ability to contextualize and verify reports, photos and videos from social media channels. We’ll discuss some simple tools to help journalists verify infor...
The Online News Association recently formed a working group of journalists who deal with user-generated content to discuss the ethics and standards of digital and social newsgathering. The first step ...
Amateur footage: the increasing reliance on user generated content in news output
News outlets are using more and more footage filmed by eyewitnesses at breaking news events. With the proliferation of mobile phones with high quality cameras and easy access to the social web, citize...
Photos
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