ETHICS, INTEGRITY & IMPACT
In a turbulent year for news organizations and press freedom, we were honored to have played a humble part in steadying the ship. Through panels, trainings, original reporting, conferences and conversations, we fostered vigorous debate on critical ethical issues and promoted high standards in journalism. In spite of the challenges facing journalism – because of these challenges – we are more committed than ever to the work of lifting up the promise and possibilities still to be found in fearless acts of journalism. - Kathleen Bartzen Culver, Director of the UW Center for Journalism Ethics
FOSTERING VIGOROUS DEBATE
Our conference "Journalism Ethics in a Fracturing World" took place on Friday, September 26, 2025, and addressed the ethical dimensions of a media environment characterized by fragmentation, increasing authoritarianism and disappearing and unreliable data. We were thrilled to welcome keynote speaker Keith Woods (NPR, retired) who delivered a speech called "In Defense of Journalism" and Vox Media's Kara Swisher, who interviewed Jessica Yellin of News Not Noise on "Building and Audience for the Truth."
Other panelists took on key conversations, such as “The New Age of Censorship” and “Spin, Lies and Disappearing Data.” We were proud to provide a thoughtful forum for news media professionals, innovators, academics, advocates, students and the public to better understand the challenges, opportunities and pressures of this moment.
97.1% of those who completed our post-event survey said the event met their expectations.
Brilliant minds – brilliant speakers. The keynote was probably the most thought-intriguing speaker I've ever heard! Kudos! The panelists were great too.
Speakers were informative, engaging, inspiring.
ProPublica immigration and labor reporter Melissa Sanchez served as the 2026 Sharon Dunwoody Journalist-in-Residence for the Center for Journalism Ethics. In addition to meeting with students for one week, she participated in a public discussion titled “Reporting on Immigration in Times of Crisis: Wisconsin and Beyond” moderated by Wisconsin Watch reporter and Center board member Natalie Yahr.
Sanchez discussed her outstanding reporting on conditions for immigrant workers on Wisconsin dairy farms, the Venezuelan immigrants the Trump administration sent to a prison in El Salvador and ICE's raid of an apartment building in Chicago. Held at Memorial Union, the event was co-sponsored by The Program in Chicanx/e and Latinx/e Studies and UW–Madison's Office of Strategic Communication.
Our Student Fellows Program
Our student fellowship program welcomes exceptional UW–Madison students with a strong interest in creating a more ethical future for news media. Over the academic year, fellows work under the mentorship of our director, advisory board and administrator, to produce original reporting on the critical ethical issues of our time and to contribute to the life of the Center.
This year, six student fellows produced original reporting on current issues in media ethics, exploring how reporters might more ethically cover topics such as political leaders' health, homelessness, cosmetic surgery and more.
The Center for Journalism Ethics connected me to a larger idea of what respectable journalism is and should be. My reporting has grown beyond the basics and into conscientious, truthful journalism. Through guidance from both journalists in the field and Center faculty, I have deeply broadened my ethical standards for reporting and will continue to carry them with me throughout my career.
- Student fellow Audrey Lopez-Stane
Contributed Articles from Experts
This year we also published three articles from outside experts who contributed original reporting on the role of journalism now, ethics lessons from a rock and roll history podcast and the case for "care-based" journalism.
PROMOTING HIGH STANDARDS
The 2026 Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics went to two San Francisco Chronicle reporters for their four-part investigation showing how California’s haste to open more behavioral health treatment facilities led to widespread violence and neglect. Joaquin Palomino and Cynthia Dizikes spent more than a year pulling back the curtain on the rapid growth of for-profit psychiatric hospitals in California. The result is an explosive but sensitive account of the abuse and neglect inflicted upon patients and an exhaustive record of the state’s refusal to uphold its own laws or reckon with the facilities’ deplorable conditions. The Shadid Award judging committee praised the extraordinary care the San Francisco Chronicle team demonstrated in carrying out their investigation. Kathryn McGarr, associate professor in the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication and chair of the committee, said this year’s winning entry was once again chosen from a very strong slate of entrants. “Palomino and Dizikes took such care with a vulnerable population that the state seemed to have abandoned,” McGarr said. “The committee appreciated that the journalists had to make choices for which there were no clear-cut answers and ultimately produced a consequential series that remained sensitive to the human beings at its center.” Palomino and Dizikes accepted the 20256 Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism on April 20, 2026, at an award ceremony in Washington, DC. The night also featured a keynote conversation with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg conducted by David Maraniss.
Our Second Storytelling Institute
In July 2025, the Center for Journalism Ethics hosted its second annual Social Impact Storytelling Institute – a two-week storytelling workshop aimed at providing high school students from first-generation and low-income communities with the chance to develop skills in interviewing, multimedia production and ethical storytelling.
The institute is designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of storytelling, ethical journalism, and media literacy through hands-on activities and mentorship. This year, 16 high school students from Madison and Milwaukee participated in interactive labs, workshops and field trips to PBS Wisconsin and WSUM, ultimately producing multimedia profiles of local community members.
Participant Feedback
I feel more confident now about going to college and talking to new people.
I loved making the videos, editing and filming — it was such a fun experience.
It changed the way I view my own stories.
SHARING OUR EXPERTISE
Center Director Kathleen Bartzen Culver addressed media ethics in local and national news outlets, with interviews focused on everything from Jimmy Kimmel's suspension to questions about a journalist's close relationship to Jeffrey Epstein. Culver also served on the PBS Editorial Standards Review Committee and the Associated Press Standards Advisory Panel and continued to co-lead the Journalism Educators Institute.
This year we also welcome a new affiliated faculty member to the Center. Tomás Dodds is an assistant professor in Journalism and Mass Communication at UW–Madison, founder of The Public Tech Media Lab and a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein-Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Dodds studies 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. We are thrilled to be working with him.