N3

Governments in the Asia Pacific region have stepping up their game in recent years for regulating so far unregulated areas in the digital economy space (internet access, content moderation, online misinformation...). These new regulations, which are often imposed with little or no democratic debate and restricted public awareness often have severe consequences for journalists and social media influencers in countries where freedom of speech is already strictly controlled.. How should the media industry tackle this growing threat? What collaborative measures could we undertake to ensure rule of law and protect free speech?

Unconference Session 1 : This session will consist of a roundtable, moderated conversation. Participants in N3Con 2023 are welcome to suggest tweaks in the session's topic and to volunteer to contribute. The suggested conversation will be about how newsrooms can use the community approach and how journalists can leverage it: - What does community mean for media organizations or journalism platforms? - How does it enhance audience engagement? - What do journalists need to do (differently) to assimilate their communities in their mission? - How can newsrooms leverage their communities to drive impact/change?

Unconference Session 2 : This session will consist of a roundtable, moderated conversation. Participants in N3Con 2023 are welcome to suggest tweaks to the session's topic and to volunteer to contribute. The suggested conversation will be about how small newsrooms can produce investigative journalism, aiming for maximum impact through joint investigations and partnerships. Should a "decolonized journalism" approach incentive news media with an international footprint to work more closely with small, independent, local newsrooms?

In this session, early career journalists will talk to students about working in the media. Students will have an opportunity to ask professionals for early career advice and hear more about what they do as reporters. Each of the three panelists will bring experiences in a specialized area. This session's live streaming will be available online for free for students unable to travel to Singapore for N3Con 2023.

Reporters are already using the public version of ChatGPT in their daily work. In this session, we will share useful tips about how ChatGPT can help you produce better reporting. We will also highlight the pitfalls to avoid and set some clear ethical guidelines that one should always keep in mind when using AI tools.

Giving a voice to the voiceless, is one of journalism's key missions. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are not only a question of fairness: they are decisive tools for improving your reporting's quality and reach. In this workshop, participants will get to understand gender Equality, Diversity, Inclusion-related key concepts, appreciate the importance of Inclusive management and explore new approaches/tools to improve GEDI in their reporting and newsrooms.

Unconference Session 4 : This session will consist of a roundtable, moderated conversation. Participants in N3Con 2023 are welcome to suggest tweaks to the session's topic and to volunteer to contribute. When a journalist turned media entrepreneur successfully manages to launch his/her own media outlet, an unexpected challenge can be the difficulty to maintain objectivity in the process of news production regardless of the funders' pledges. What kind of pressures can small newsrooms experience from investors as well as from outsiders? In this session, participants will share their experiences on this and other challenges they encountered as media entrepreneurs and discuss the future of independent journalism.

Unconference Session 5 : This session will consist of a roundtable, moderated conversation. Participants in N3Con 2023 are welcome to suggest tweaks to the session's topic and to volunteer to contribute. Over the past few decades, the importance of freelancers in providing coverage across Asia has grown as North American and European outlets closed bureaus and cut down on staff. The pandemic – which made “parachute journalism” across the region nearly impossible due to strict border controls – only accelerated the use of freelancers. In this session, participants will discuss the specific challenges of freelancers in Asia. It will highlight the need for better connections among them, the difficulties for creating platforms or networks for communication across this diverse region, and brainstorm how AAJA-Asia and other platforms could better support freelancers.