Upcoming Workshops
IRE: June 19, 2026 (Washington D.C.) Covering Extreme Right Influences on your Beat
Network for Public Education National Summit: September 26-27, 2026 (Houston) Learn How to Connect with Local Media
Bio: Kyle Spencer, a former New York Times contributor and the founding editor of Reporting Right, a publication of the Pro-Democracy Information Lab, runs skills-based workshops on how to do pro-democracy journalism, combat misinformation and intentionally keep propaganda out of the news.
Spencer draws on her 20-plus years as an award-winning journalist — first as a beat reporter in Pennsylvania and North Carolina and later as a frequent contributor to the New York Times. While reporting her critically-acclaimed book Raising Them Right, the Untold Story of America’s Ultraconservative Youth Movement and Its Plot for Power, Spencer spent hours with radicalized activists who spoke candidly about their efforts to manipulate the media. Her workshops are informed by her understanding of this phenomenon.
Spencer is interested in what you want to learn about. She crafts workshops accordingly.
Below find some popular topics.
WORKSHOPS
Here are some of the institutions and organizations that have requested Kyle’s pro-democracy workshops.
The Center for Cooperative Media - Writing about radicalized groups on your beat.
Investigative Reporters and Editors Association Wait, Who Funds You? Finding out on deadline.
Education Writer’s Association
Duke Human Rights Center (September 2024)
For information on arranging a workshop, please contact Kyle Spencer at KyleSpencerDemocracy@proton.me or at 347-564-3312
2026 Workshops
This is Not Normal: Covering Political Violence on Your Beat (Reporters, GFX Team)
This workshop offers important insight into the media’s role as a warning signal around political violence, exploring journalists’ ethical obligation to connect that violence to real people: their institutions, donors, office holders and radicalized activists.
The talk will address some of the following:
How to write about sensational events without sensationalizing them
Using strong words (your editor won’t edit out) for dangerous people
Reframing the coverage, so political violence is understood as systemic
Understanding the historical background (federal, state and local) about right-wing violence as a political tool
Looking at actual stories, we will explore:
How the Michigan media failed to accurately cover the assassination attempt against Gov. Whitmer, and how it can do better next time
How to avoid two-sidisms when violence strikes
How to do proactive coverage when violence is being planned
Storytelling skills include:
Creating violence trackers
Clocking violent speech
Using visual storytelling tools to convey patterns
Finding donors on deadline
Spencer offers 5-6 local story ideas tailored to the news agency
Congratulation, You Got Played!: How to Avoid Right-Wing Media Manipulation
This talk delves into the long history of right-wing manipulation of the American media, exploring key players, key theories, and key ways many young reporters get convinced to carry water for radicals.
The talk will address some of the following:
What’s in a name
How correcting the record=repetition=spreading lies
How to write a “truth sandwich”
When what sources say happened didn't actually happen, what do you do
When the press release is propaganda
Punishing sources who lie
PAST WORKSHOPS
September 11, 2024: Duke Human Rights Center
July 2024: Democracy Day @ the Center for Cooperative Media: How to Cover Local Right-Wing Groups
July 26, 2024: Network Nova: Talking to Local Reporter (About Democracy) So They Listen (Zoom)
March 2024: NICAR Annual Conference (Investigative Reporters & Editors): Wait, Who funds You? - Finding Out on Deadline.
September 2023: Flagler College (Freedom to Teach Conference) Reporting on the Ground
April 2023: Trinity College, Hartford, Ct.: Researching Dark Money in Higher Education
May 2016: Education Writers Association Annual Conference Equity (panelist)