During the keynote, as Josh plays clips from the film, Walter V. Robinson<\/strong><\/a>, the Globe\u2019s Editor at Large (played by Michael Keaton), Sacha Pfeiffer<\/strong><\/a>, Globe columnist and reporter covering nonprofits, philanthropy and wealth (Rachel McAdams), and Michael Rezendes<\/strong><\/a>, a senior investigative reporter for the Globe\u2019s Spotlight Team (Mark Ruffalo), will discuss their work, what the series might look like in the digital age and the difference between reel- and real-life newsrooms.<\/p>\n A lot has changed since January 2002, when the original team of eight reporters started looking into sexual abuses in the Boston Archidiocese. They were using the basic tools of the trade: the phone, shoe leather and \u201cdata mining\u201d \u2014 which at that time meant manually reviewing public databases, reports and publications, then matching up names, dates and information.<\/p>\n The herculean efforts uncovered decades of secrecy and lies and inspired new safeguards. A 2010 story from The Guardian summed it up:<\/p>\n \u201cAs a result of their five exhaustive months of database-mining, interviewing and cross-referencing, the eight Globe reporters on the case had established that the Boston archdiocese had, over the previous decade, privately settled sexual abuse claims made by Catholic families against a staggering 70 of its priests.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 Within two years of the first of the Globe\u2019s 800 articles on the scandal appearing in January 2002 \u2026 Cardinal Law had resigned, 150 priests in Boston stood accused of sexual abuse, more than 500 victims had filed abuse claims, and church-goers\u2019 donations to the archdiocese had slumped by 50 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n And, as the story notes, during that same time \u201cacross America as a whole, more than 450 priests and four bishops resigned, and several states, including Massachusetts, introduced new laws obliging clergy to report any knowledge of child sex abuse to the civil authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n With the renaissance of investigative reporting by digital news outlets, we\u2019re looking forward to hearing from the team that performed the ultimate public service \u2014 helping bring horrific abuses to light.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Jane McDonnell is Executive Director of ONA, overseeing and managing the day-to-day operations of the world\u2019s largest membership organization of digital journalists, and working closely with its Board of Directors. Her purview includes membership, partnerships, global community outreach, budgeting and revenue generation, fundraising and development, the Online Journalism Awards, and providing vision for ONA\u2019s state-of-the-art annual conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"