NLGJA 2026 National Convention

Queer journalism is no longer centered in traditional newsrooms. Activists, creators, freelancers, and community organizers are often the first — and most trusted — sources when news breaks. This session examines what journalism looks like when it operates outside legacy institutions, and what that shift means for credibility, accountability, trust and safety. We’ll explore when amplification is more ethical than attribution, how to report alongside communities without flattening lived experience and how journalism increasingly functions as infrastructure — from bill trackers to harm-reduction reporting. This conversation challenges gatekeeping, rejects false neutrality and asks a necessary question: if we built queer journalism today, would we still call it a newsroom?

Artificial intelligence has developed swiftly and with few guardrails, often pushing the boundaries of sexuality and consent. In January, Grok, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot, created and then publicly shared at least 1.8 million sexualized images of women in just nine days. Online, some users are falling in love with chatbots, while others are using them to generate the types of intimate deepfakes that prompted governments in Britain, India, Malaysia and the United States to start investigations into whether the images violated local laws. This panel covers the rapidly evolving industry, the lures and risks for users of the technology and how journalists can protect themselves from harassment and spot the truth in an onslaught of faked imagery.

In an era of digital distraction, holding a reader’s interest across thousands of words requires a quiet superpower. The secret isn't just the strength of the reporting — it is in the rhythm of the delivery. This panel brings together narrative writers and editors who will dissect the mechanics of proper pacing. Want a meaty discussion about great writing? We will move beyond vague advice like "make it flow" to analyze the structural decisions that keep a story moving. Attendees will learn how to strategically expand and contract time, choreograph high-stakes scenes, and inject breathing room into dense, information-heavy investigations without losing momentum. Come learn how to build tension, manage transitions, and keep readers hooked for the long haul.