Flip the Media’s Coverage of Registries and Sexual Violence - Steve Yoder

A lot -- sometimes people’s lives -- rides on state and local reporters getting it right in stories about registries and sexual violence. Media outlets can do better, but they won’t unless they’re pushed. While we can’t control how an outlet frames a story, there are ways to improve the chances they’ll get it right. Advocates who know how to be great sources can change the angle of stories and therefore public attitudes. This presentation will offer insights, based on Steven’s hundreds of interviews over the years, on how to be a great source for reporters. He’ll focus on media tactics: how to be a resource for reporters, how to seize persuasion windows, and more. And he’ll discuss messaging—how to craft a compelling vision.

Steven Yoder is an award-winning journalist who has covered a range of policy issues for national magazines and news sites, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Time, Wired, and others. While much of his work covers domestic policy and business topics, he also writes about criminal justice, especially on issues of sexual violence and the impacts of sex-offense registries and related laws. His 2016 investigation for Al Jazeera America on police sexual violence was runner-up for the American Society of Journalists and Authors' 2017 Excellence in Reporting Award, and his story on cities' responses to the pandemic won second place in the 2021 California Journalism Awards for coverage of local government. Since 2010 he's been writing long-form feature and investigative stories about how sex-offense registries and related laws affect registrants and their families, about who profits from registrant monitoring systems, and what the research shows about registries and related schemes.