Journalism Workshops – Storytelling as a tool for social change.
This is a highlight story from Better to Speak’s 2021 Annual Report. To explore the full annual report, visit www.bettertospeak.org/past-work, and take a deep dive into this specific project on page 16 of the full PDF report.
“The people must know before they can act” is a great quote by Ida B. Wells-Barnett, journalist, educator, and activist. It reminds us that before we dive into the work, whatever that work may be, we have to have the knowledge to support that work.
Our knowledge must be able to offer us conviction, show us where to go when we discover gaps or weaknesses in our understanding, and create points of connection and inspiration for others as we move to act on that knowledge.
When you gain all of that, however, what is your next step? Ideally, the next step would be to put your knowledge into motion to do all of the things just mentioned. This tells us that, just as it’s important to have spaces dedicated to transferring knowledge from one person or entity to another, there must also be spaces dedicated to cultivating the skills needed to help us put our knowledge (and language) into action.
This year presented new opportunities for founder Kési Felton to share what she has learned with younger emerging journalists. These experiences reiterated the importance of storytelling as a tool for social change and offered insights that will inform Better to Speak’s future programming.
Better to Speak hopes to move into the next step of this work – still guided by Audre Lorde’s call to transform “silence into language and action.” In addition to our editorial content and podcast, we’re hoping to offer more interactive workshops to share knowledge about storytelling and media-making.
LEARN MORE: Media2070 and the call for media reparations.
Social Media and Storytelling
Howard University’s Cathy Hughes School of Communications Journalism program hosted a Multicultural Media and Health Journalism Academy, sponsored by the Dow Jones News Fund and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
During the summer program, students learned “ how to write news stories, capture audio, shoot and edit video, take photos and incorporate social media” and gained “an understanding of interrelated social issues — such as housing and hunger — that contribute to making communities unhealthy.”
Our workshop covered how social media is an important tool for multimedia storytelling – specifically as it relates to health journalism.
The presentation – both creating it and from what we gained from how it was received – reiterated the importance of using social media and other digital platforms to inform readers directly with live reporting, by engaging in relevant discussions and pitching interviewees, in addition to simply amplifying published articles and stories.
Check out the stories written by emerging young journalists that Kési helped to edit on the ‘Voices of Tomorrow’ website, as well as the other content by all of the program participants:
“Spiritual Health Matters” and “The problem with rural health care” by Madison Canzano
“COVID-19 & its impact on African-American workers” by Annika Dean
Journalism and Zines as Activism
Inspired by Better to Speak’s work on Your Silence Will Not Protect You – a zine on Black civic engagement, and co-facilitator Georgia’s experience creating zines in organizing and grassroots spaces, we collaborated to co-facilitate an interactive workshop with VOX teens.
During the workshop, we discussed the various types of journalism that can be used for activism and social change and learned about the history of zines and the process to create them. We even created a communal zine where participants contributed their own designed pages.
Overall – we were able to introduce the concept of movement journalism to young journalists, which isn’t something that’s normally discussed in traditional journalism spaces. Additionally, this panel (and VOX ATL as an organization) reminded me of the power of journalism, and that storytelling is a tool for social change because it’s a tool for authentic expression.
It also shows that taking care of the human being while telling these stories – including the reporters themselves as well as our interviewees or subjects – is an important practice to cultivate early on as well. It’s not just all about being relentless in pursuit of a story as we’re so often taught, especially when that reinforces the dehumanization of ourselves and other people who may come from marginalized identities/communities.
Movement Journalism Network Gathering – Black Journalists Caucus
Press On South and Migrant Roots Media collaborated in hosting a virtual gathering for a movement journalists network listserv. We signed up and were invited to host a caucus for Black journalists.
During the caucus, we discussed the importance of supporting emerging voices in journalism and cultivating relationships and connections with other Black journalists in this industry.
The conversation ultimately reminded me of the importance of thinking critically about journalistic practices and examining your relationship to…
Your organization/outlet/publication - How are they taking care of their reporters? Be aware of when an institution places the media product, clicks, views, or profit over people.
The community/communities you cover - Remain people-centered and aim to leave individuals & communities better.
Other Black journalists - Get exposure to communities of like-minded journos and maintain those relationships beyond college or early career.
In Conclusion
Our community event partnerships in 2020-21 allowed us to learn about and experience workshop and facilitation formats that will inform our upcoming capacity-building programming and community events. Thank you so much to each and every organization that invited Better to Speak to participate in their event!
If you’re looking for someone to speak at an upcoming event or host an upcoming workshop related to storytelling as a tool for social justice, reach out to Kési directly at kesi@bettertospeak.org or visit our services page!
