6 Journalists four different perspectives
Last week I mentioned the request we received from BBC Panorama. The requests increased this week as Fuel Poverty Action have constantly been contacted to speak to people in fuel crisis. It seems journalists want to speak to people in a particular bracket, families with children in new crisis. I don’t understand what leads to these trends and journalists requesting a particular narrative or if it is a case of supply and demand.
As 13 people in the Social Justice Network wanted to speak to journalists and many of them don’t fit into the preperscribed narrative we have discussed setting up a media group. Network members were interested in a media group being a place where experience can be shared and support offered.
I did a call out on the Fair Share Campaign Forum as a group of campaigners who share knowledge and some may have resources (mental and physical) to help with the set up of such a group. I was told about
At Economy we run a news and entertainment platform called ecnmy.org that is diversifying the voices heard in news about the economy. As part of this we run a project called ‘Voices of the Economy’ where we pay contributors £50 to write a short article relating to their / their communities experiences of the economy, we take a co-production approach to this where they are supported by and work in collaboration with our in-house Editor Beth as we predominantly have contributors who have not written before. We see topics relating to the economy really widely from food to housing, immigration to health.
From Fatima at Economy
More info here: https://weare.ecnmy.org/get-involved/share-your-story/
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism Local have a citizen journalist network that discuss story ideas every Friday lunch time through their SLACK channel. This is a really good opportunity for citizens to connect and discuss stories with journalists as well as write their own stories. The investigations that are covered might start from one person experiencing one issue where they live and then journalists including citizen journalists (people who wouldn’t consider themselves journalists but write) across the country see if the same issue is affecting people else where. This type of journalism is really impactful and has launched local and central government investigations so does bring bigger change.
This week my collegue Jenny (the Communition Manager at South West London Law Centres) and I attended a focus day with Media Trust and BBC Journalists. The day was working together to improve access to the Housing Possession Hearing Duty Advice Scheme (where our housing solicitors provide free legal advice at south west London courts). We need people to attend court when they have a housing hearing and to access the free legal advice available to help them stay in their homes.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism did do an investigation into this and revealed that many people attend court without representation. Read about this important investigation here: Open justice? The closed doors of possession courts — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (en-GB) (thebureauinvestigates.com).
We need to make sure this doesn’t happen so we did a focused day with professessionals who can help us get the word out.
I had some annual leave this week but the days inbetween I spoke with 6 journalists on four different issues.