2026: Renewing Our Courage: Journalism Ethics in Troubled Times

Friday,  October 30, 2026

Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery,
330 N. Orchard St., Madison, Wis.

Free and open to the public

Register here

RENEWING OUR COURAGE will gather news media professionals, media innovators, academics, students and the public to take on the urgent ethical issues facing the practice of journalism in increasingly authoritarian times. 

With a mix of panel discussions, presentations and hands-on training led by experts from around the world, we will explore topics such as covering protest, unrest, and organized resistance, and covering government corruption and abuse of power. We will also learn about emerging models of journalism that can help us meet the challenges of this moment. 

BEN COLLINS is the CEO of The Onion, America’s Finest News Source™. He previously worked as a senior reporter at NBC News, where he won an Emmy and Walter Cronkite Award. He was also a senior editor at The Daily Beast.

KATHLEEN BARTZEN CULVER is the director of the Center for Journalism Ethics and the James E. Burgess Chair in Journalism Ethics at UW–Madison.

Culver’s research aims to advance integrity in media. Her current work explores First Amendment and free speech and press on campus, particularly in times of protest and conflict. She focuses on the tensions between expression rights and the responsibilities of public communicators. Other recent work examined emerging technologies, such as virtual reality, drones and sensors, and how their use in news affects both ethics and journalism’s relationship with the public.

As an integrated scholar, Culver focuses on how to draw together strands from research, teaching and service to influence other researchers, practitioners, students and the public. She has won multiple awards for her teaching, including the Scripps Foundation Journalism and Mass Communication Educator of the Year and UW-Madison William H. Kiekhofer Distinguished Teaching Award.

TOMAS DODDS is the Director of the Public Tech Media Lab and an Assistant Professor in Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an Affiliated Faculty at the UW Center for Journalism Ethics, and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein-Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. He was also a Research Fellow at the AI, Media & Democracy Lab and the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at the University of Amsterdam.

Dodds’ research examines the evolving relationship between journalism and technology, with a focus on how journalists and media organizations can develop open-source tools and artificial intelligence systems that serve the public interest.

ERIN GRETZINGER is an education journalist currently covering K-12 schools and early education for the Cap Times in Madison. Before joining the Cap Times, Erin covered colleges at The Assembly in North Carolina and The Chronicle of Higher Education in Washington, D.C. Her reporting has been recognized by the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, the Milwaukee Press Club, the National Center on Disability and Journalism, the Education Writers Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. Erin studied journalism and French at UW-Madison, where she also served as a student fellow at the Center for Journalism Ethics.

ELENA KOSTYUCHENKO is a Russian independent journalist. For 17 years she was a special correspondent of Novaya Gazeta, until the newspaper was shut down under the pressure of Russian authorities in March 2022. She reported on conflict, crime, human rights and social issues. Kostyuchenko was among the first to prove the presence of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine. She covered the Russian invasion of Ukraine from the second day of the war. Now she collaborates with the independent Russian exiled media Meduza. Her book I Love Russia was released on October 17, 2023. Her work has been recognized with multiple awards including European Press Prize, the Gerd Bucerius Award-Free Press of Eastern Europe, and the Paul Klebnikov Prize.

ERIN MCGROARTY is a health journalist currently reporting for the Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin. Her recent reporting has covered post-Roe abortion policy, challenged prison healthcare practices and shed light on gaps in rural health resources. Formerly, Erin worked as a political journalist in Alaska, producing award-winning coverage of congressional climate change reports and budget cut effects on social services. Erin was a 2025 fellow with the International Women’s Media Foundation, reporting from Kyiv and other regions of central Ukraine on civilian impacts of Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion.

Erin served as a fellow at the Center for Journalism Ethics in 2021 while pursuing her master’s degree, and published work for the center exploring the ethical complications involved in current crime reporting practices and newsroom examinations of objectivity in the face of social justice movements. Her reporting has been recognized by the Milwaukee Press Club, the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, the National Center on Disability and Journalism and the Alaska Press Club. 

DOUGLAS MCLEOD is an Evjue Centennial Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at UW–Madison. His research examines the factors that shape the production of messages intended for various mass communication platforms (e.g., news stories, political and health communication messages) and the impact that these messages have on audiences, public opinion and public policy.

For example, one of McLeod’s major contributions has been the study of the content and effects of mainstream print and broadcast news coverage of social protests. This research indicates that such news coverage typically follows a “protest paradigm,” a common set of characteristics including an emphasis on actions over issues, conflicts with law enforcement over challenges to institutional policies, and acts of deviance over active citizenship. Media adherence to the protest paradigm is accentuated when the protest group’s goals call for more radical change and their tactics are more extreme. Moreover, protest groups (including both liberal and conservative groups) that don’t engage in dramatic tactics are often ignored by the media. This puts protest groups in a double-bind situation: either they engage in purely rational discourse that often leaves them largely ignored by mainstream media or they engage in dramatic actions that draw attention of the media, but often lead to news coverage that delegitimizes the protest movement.

McLeod’s research provides insights for groups who are seeking to influence public opinion and public policy. For example, his research informs social movements on how they can make effective and constructive contributions to society. In addition, his research also provides insights that can guide effective health and public information campaigns.

LEAH MILLIS is a freelance photojournalist based out of Washington, D.C. Millis started her career at newspapers and spent 7.5 years working for Reuters covering national news, the White House and international news. Throughout her career she has covered a wide range of issues, including politics, international protest movements, war, immigration, climate change, mass shootings and the rise of domestic extremism in the United States.

MACOLLVIE J. NEEL is an award-winning journalist and communications consultant focused on elevating voices in workplaces and media spaces through impactful storytelling that empowers and advances equity. She specializes in narratives about the Haitian diaspora, immigrants, and the workplace as a microcosm of society.

As a journalist, Macollvie serves as the Special Projects Editor of The Haitian Times. She leads investigations, enterprise packages, and explanatory features; coaches reporters to center the nuanced experiences of this vibrant diaspora community; and provides analysis and commentary about Haiti on premier outlets. Last year, the publication received the 2025 Maria Ressa Prizes for Courage in Journalism for reporting that countered anti-Haitian conspiracy theories during the 2024 U.S. presidential election. For her part in that work, Macollvie was swatted, prompting her to deepen her connection with the media and press safety community.

Macollvie also teaches Reporting & Writing at the City College of New York (CCNY) Media & Communication Arts Department, is a Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) certified trainer, and is a newly minted safety ambassador for the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF). The Ford Foundation, the Pulitzer Center, and the McGraw Center for Business Journalism are among the prestigious entities that have supported her work.

ANITA VARMA is the author of Solidarity in Journalism: How Ethical Reporting Fights for Social Justice (Columbia University Press), which is her first book. After earning her PhD in Communication at Stanford University in 2018, Varma went on to start the Solidarity Journalism Initiative at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics (Santa Clara University) which she then brought with her to Austin, Texas when she joined the School of Journalism and Media (University of Texas at Austin) as faculty member in 2021.

Varma’s scholarly work has been published in Journalism Studies, Journalism Practice, Journalism, Journal of Communication Inquiry, News Research Journal, Communication, Culture and Critique, and Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. She has contributed to edited volumes on journalism, media, and society, and her public-facing work has been published in The Conversation, Nieman Lab, and All About Ethics.

Varma’s award-winning scholarship has gained international recognition among journalists fighting the good fight for social justice and human rights around the world. She received the 2025 Public Engagement award from the Journalism Studies Division of the International Communication Association. Her second book, Dangerous Solidarity: How Truth Telling Persists in Hostile Conditions is in development.