Shifting the Power: A Toolkit for Journalists and Communicators
London: On Our Radar (2020), 56 pp.
"This guide will offer a range of tools and methods that can be used to promote a more inclusive form of journalism and storytelling, with marginalised groups and individuals. It’s based on over half a decade of experience and making award-winning, high-impact content in collaboration with reporters from marginalised communities all over the world - from garment workers in Bangladesh and people living with dementia in the UK, to quarantined villages covering the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone. This isn’t intended as a definitive guide. Every context will have its own unique challenges and every organisation will have its own workflows, outputs and audiences. This is an introduction to a framework to make journalism inclusive and empowering and borrows heavily from lessons learned from community organising, service design and the humanitarian sector." (Page 3)
I. WHAT'S IN THE WAY? A DIAGNOSTIC LENS, 7
Conviction: do participants trust you and the process? Do they believe that speaking out will result in meaningful change? 10
Capacity: do participants have the skills, access and resources required to report on a story safely, securely and accurately? 12
Confidence: where does the power come from to find your voice? 14
Connectivity: do participants have barriers to digital engagement and, if so, what tools are they using to communicate? 16
Craft: do participants have the necessary skills to deliver broadcast-quality media for public platforms? 18
II. THE ROAD TO COLLABORATION: A PRACTICAL GUIDE, 20
Setting up a reporter network, 22
Initiating a story dive, 23
Co-design, 24
Spotlight: dementia diaries, 29
Training, 30
Spotlight: Participant selection: what we've learned, 35
Spotlight: The legacy of training: beyond Ebola, 36
Coaching and mentoring, 37
Qualities of a good mentor, 41
Spotlight: Leonard Cheshire disability, 42
Spotlight: The importance of relationships, 43
Technology development, 44
Radius, 46
Spotlight: SMS voices, 47
Co-production, 48
Brainstorming for co-production, 49
Spotlight: Lives behind the label, 50
Editorial control, 51
Spotlight: My stolen childhood, 52
After a story goes out, 53
Measuring impact, 54
Safeguarding, 55
Payment, 56
Conviction: do participants trust you and the process? Do they believe that speaking out will result in meaningful change? 10
Capacity: do participants have the skills, access and resources required to report on a story safely, securely and accurately? 12
Confidence: where does the power come from to find your voice? 14
Connectivity: do participants have barriers to digital engagement and, if so, what tools are they using to communicate? 16
Craft: do participants have the necessary skills to deliver broadcast-quality media for public platforms? 18
II. THE ROAD TO COLLABORATION: A PRACTICAL GUIDE, 20
Setting up a reporter network, 22
Initiating a story dive, 23
Co-design, 24
Spotlight: dementia diaries, 29
Training, 30
Spotlight: Participant selection: what we've learned, 35
Spotlight: The legacy of training: beyond Ebola, 36
Coaching and mentoring, 37
Qualities of a good mentor, 41
Spotlight: Leonard Cheshire disability, 42
Spotlight: The importance of relationships, 43
Technology development, 44
Radius, 46
Spotlight: SMS voices, 47
Co-production, 48
Brainstorming for co-production, 49
Spotlight: Lives behind the label, 50
Editorial control, 51
Spotlight: My stolen childhood, 52
After a story goes out, 53
Measuring impact, 54
Safeguarding, 55
Payment, 56
