February 2022 meeting: How newsrooms can fight misinformation and build trust

Mike Webb, senior vice president of communications for the News Literacy Project, will speak to our group Jan. 10 at noon about "How Newsrooms Can Fight Misinformation and Build Trust.” We'll also learn how organizations like AlabamaMediaProfessionals can partner with NLP to spread news literacy in our communities.

Webb is responsible for maintaining and expanding NLP’s online presence, managing media and public relations, and supporting other NLP teams with their communications needs.

Before joining NLP in July 2019, Webb served as a vice president at BerlinRosen, a Washington public affairs firm, where he led client teams on a variety of social justice issues, including initiatives that taught young people to serve as spokespersons for a movement to close youth prisons. The firm also supported a children’s advocacy organization working to improve foster care systems across the country.

Earlier in his career, Webb spent five years at ProPublica, where he was the nonprofit newsroom’s first communications professional. As director and vice president of communications, he created a blueprint to ensure that ProPublica’s investigations had impact: producing major events, developing and expanding the newsletter, launching a podcast and generating numerous stories about the innovative Pulitzer-Prize-winning news outlet. He has also held communications positions at the Brennan Center for Justice and The Nation magazine and led sales and marketing efforts at the online news site Honolulu Civil Beat.

Webb received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University.