Speakers: Julia Migne, Priti Salian
Moderator: Fara Warner
December 1st, 2020, 15:00-15:30 CET
Written by Amedeo Gasparini
Keywords: Solutions, Journalism, Empathy, Resilience, Climate
One can always learn something about great natural disasters and catastrophes: in the field of new, innovative and original journalistic solutions, the projects of Julia Migne and Priti Salian go in this direction and are aimed particularly to report issues starting from the difficult and dire climatic situations on the Earth to concrete, alternative and factual solutions through stories and reporting while emphasizing the need to collect data and consult experts on the related subject as well as to give to affected people a voice.
Project 1 (Julia Migne) - Through a series of six stories scattered around the world, the author refers to both the problems and solutions that can improve the environment in the journalistic field, with clear reference to climate change as well as the importance of giving and producing a narrative linked to global solutions. Project 2 (Priti Salia) - The author has developed a series of reports that refer to the difficult conditions after a major natural disaster in India and how the communities in the devastated area – especially children – have reacted to the dramatic challenges that have arisen; education to kids is the key for a new start and should entail innovative solutions and programs.
Both projects focus on the concrete solutions that modern data journalism can find for current global problems and concerns with reference to climate change and natural disasters which more often are also indirectly caused by man. Mitigating the devastating aspects that can destroy nature is a good beginning to start a new life, thanks to reporting stories on the field and empowering affected people by also making their stories available to many.
Both authors focused on the importance of finding reliable sources, both academically and concretely on the field. The former aspect, the importance of data gathering is stressed and crucial to ensure a good service to the readers (but this is not always possible), while the latter, finding the true and precious stories of those implicated in natural disaster must also take into account the emotions of the people affected (and which is not always possible to do so accurately).
Takeaways
1. Climate-related problems are human problems and are solvable by humans in the short or long term;
2. We must never forget empathy when talking to people and visiting places hit by natural disasters;
3. The increasing importance of data journalism must be stressed but the latter must be based on facts and stories directly impacting people’s lives.