This interactive training takes 2 hours and draws on the experience of experts in conflict. The techniques and strategies taught will help you learn new ways to produce more nuanced, inclusive reporting on divisive and polarizing issues. The training will address the following pillars, and will include some examples as well :
- Pillar 1: Listen differently when covering a contentious, polarizing issue
- Pillar 2: Go beneath the problem (to uncover motivations, not just positions)
- Pillar 3: Embrace complexity in our reporting about divisive issues
- Pillar 4: Counter confirmation bias (and any biases we may bring to a specific topic/issue)
In preparation for the workshop, we would like to ask each participant read the following articles prior to this learning gathering:
- SJN’s The Whole Story: Complicating the Narratives (text or audio version)
- The Narwhal's annotated article Life after coal (also attached).
If you have time, you can also read those two examples of articles that Complicate the narratives :
- A Personal History of Land Grabbing in Zimbabwe, Are We Europe
- Can dairy adapt to climate change?, BBC
Trainer: Nina Fasciaux is the manager in Europe & International coordinator for the Solutions Journalism Network. She previously lived in Russia, as an editor and a journalist, and is now based in France. She is the author of the book "Nomade des mers, les escales de l'innovation," a world tour of low-tech solutions to basic needs. She has trained hundreds of journalists and journalism trainers in the practice of solutions journalism, from Palestine to Denmark. For the last three years, she has also been training journalists in Europe to Complicate the narratives, a training program that builds on conflict mediation techniques to better cover highly polarized issues and embrace their complexity and nuances.
Nina will be joined by Anneleen Ophoff, the editor-in-chief of Are We Europe. She has worked as a multidisciplinary journalist since 2012, creating transmedia experiences for the Flemish-Belgian public broadcaster, VRT News, and online documentary series for Canvas and Vice News. She lectures at Thomas More University-College and KASK School of Arts. As editor-in-chief, she hopes to cover social justice issues with a fresh perspective and build empathy through stories.
"Our workshop series is designed for journalists and media workers who are nationals or residents, or currently work, in the EU, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, Bosnia, and Tunisia."
