More than 160 educators from across the United States registered to participate in the summer 2025 Influencer U webinar, which trained them to teach students to create “content creator”-like journalism tailored to platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts.
The free webinar sessions, co-sponsored by the National Scholastic Press Association, ran weekly in June and July, and featured journalism researchers, advocates, practitioners and content creators. Each presenter’s insights drew on their work and experience, and allowed participants to develop classroom content tailored to their students’ needs and abilities.
“In a world where teachers have so much to do, having this resource cultivated for us, and presented in a flexible format was so essential,” an Ohio journalism teacher shared in a feedback survey. “I learned so much as it was rich from a data and first-person perspective.”
Participants had the opportunity to earn graduate college credit and continuing education credit for completing the webinar. In addition, all presentation resources were made available after each session, allowing attendees to engage with the resources around their summer schedules.
“This webinar helped me understand more about social media-based news by allowing me to speak directly to the sources creating the content,” a California journalism educator shared in the feedback survey. “I had thoughts, feelings and ideas before this webinar series, but now I have a concrete understanding of what to use in my day-to-day life and in my lessons.”
Mara Hill of NSPA and Andre Claudio, a Kent State grad and New York-based journalist, served as facilitators. The slate of speakers included:
June 4, 2025
Introductions & What the Research Says
Galen Stocking, Pew Research Center, speaking about prior research
Summer Harlow, University of Texas at Austin, Author of Content Creators and Journalists
June 11, 2025
Varieties of News Influencers and Content Creators
Liz Kelly Nelson, Project C
June 18, 2025
News, but make it engaging: Lessons from content creators
Mollie Muchna, Trusting News
June 25, 2025 (session start time moved to 8 p.m. EST)
Journalism Isn’t Dead. It’s Just on TikTok.
Grant Johnson, 9NEWS Denver, Arizona State University
Lisa Remillard, The News Girl (@lisaremillard on TikTok)
July 2, 2025
I Changed My Media Diet and You Can Too
Ryan Kellett, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
July 9, 2025
Podcasting and Video Resources
Claire McInerny, Refamulating and The Rough Draft
Christine Zirneklis, PBS News Student Reporting Labs
July 16, 2025
Law and Ethics of News Content Creators
Lindsie Rank, Director of Campus Rights Advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)
July 23, 2025
Being a Fiction and Television Influencer
Meredith Ammons (@merelymeredith on TikTok)
July 30, 2025
Being a Fashion Influencer
Cici Michele (@cicimichele on TikTok)