By Savanah Baker
Matthew Winkler, editor-in-chief emeritus of Bloomberg News, will visit the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on Thursday, Feb. 9, to discuss the role of media in the age of Twitter and the founding and growth of his global news organization.
Winkler, who cofounded Bloomberg News with Michael Bloomberg in 1990, will appear in morning and afternoon sessions in Room 15 at Andersen Hall, the College of Journalism and Mass Communications. Students and faculty at both the journalism and business colleges are expected to attend, but the session is open to all at the university.
He will discuss “Truth in the Age of Twitter” at a session at 10:45 a.m. He is expected to focus on coverage of President Trump and the challenges that he poses for media.
Later, at 2 p.m., Winkler will discuss how he and Bloomberg built Bloomberg News from scratch in 1990, leveraging the resources of the financial information company to create a global powerhouse in media.
Bloomberg News includes 2,500 editors and reporters in 150 bureaus worldwide, serving print and broadcast media throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. It produces more than 5,000 stories daily on the economy, companies, governments, financial and commodity markets, as well as the arts and sports. It also produces television and radio programming and several magazines, including Bloomberg Businessweek.
The visit was coordinated by Graduate Chair Amy Struthers and Associate Professor Joseph Weber. Weber teaches JOMC 491/891, Financial Communications, which is offered March 6 to May 5 this year. The class trains students in how to cover business and financial news and how to play important communications roles at companies, nonprofits or other organizations. Students learn how to write for financial media, as well as to understand and prepare annual and quarterly reports and to communicate with investors.
A three-credit graduate/undergraduate course, it will be offered entirely online and asynchronously in just eight weeks. It will culminate in an optional trip to Seattle to attend a conference of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, so students can network with top corporate executives and journalists from such organizations as Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Reuters and more.
For information about the course, contact Weber at josephweber@unl.edu.
