Story-Based Inquiry Associates

30/10/2024

First you tell your readers, "Democracy dies in Darkness." Then you turn out the lights on a Presidential endorsement. The readers don't get it. I think I do: It's a betrayal of the pro-democracy community created by the Post over the past few years, and they're dropping out. Thanks, , for running this natural experiment at your own expense. Here's the bottom line for news media: You can build a community (as the Post did), but you can't change what you built. Faced with that same problem in 2020, Fox lied about Dominion Voting Systems, and paid out 787 million dollars when they were sued for it. Keeping the community happy carries a price.

Post staffers press for answers on loss of readers and trust after owner Jeff Bezos explained why the paper would no longer endorse presidential candidates.

05/10/2024

01/10/2024

I've written columns, so I know that some are better than others. This piece of garbage by Marc A. Thiessen, the WashPost's resident "conservative" voice, is below minimal standards of accuracy and honesty, and totally devoid of courage. Even the headline is off: The story passes over Trump's past assaults on legal immigration, not to mention his terrifying asasults on the legal immigrants of Springfield, Ohio. Instead the piece reads like a bootlicking pitch for a job as chief propagandist in a future Trump administration. It even lauds Trump for his courage in the face of foreign dictators (Putin mst be laughing his socks off). The comments below the article exploded with disgust on a scale I've never seen, to use a bit of Trumpian hyperbole that in this case is strictly factual. The Post's credibility is on the line with this one. So is my subscription, because I don't pay them to shove appalling stuff like this in my face. Can suggest a better source of daily news and commentary?

In an exclusive interview, we discussed Project 2025, restoring deterrence and Trump’s own immigrant story.

23/09/2024

If you don't have time tomorrow, our conference on overcoming the bad news problem in climate news will be carried by , whose website offers the best archive of climate events I've ever seen.

Welcome to our digital hub for Climate Week NYC. September 23–29, 2024

23/09/2024

Tomorrow, Sept. 24, I'll be co-moderating a daylong conference on overcoming the bad news problem in climate communication. It's been eight months of prep work, and now it's time to stand and deliver. Take a look at our speakers, key actors in the climate movement (yes, I know there are brilliant others, and time and space are finite). Join us online, the venue in Brussels is full. The page below has the signup link. A demain!

How can we talk about climate change without the bad news syndrome kicking in? Join our interactive event on 24 September, broadcast from Brussels.

03/09/2024

I wrote this essay to set out what I've seen in eight months of preparing a conference on overcoming the bad news problem in climate communication, set for Brussels on Sept. 24. The climate story is changing journalism, and accelerating changes that the Stakeholder Media Project documented from 2008 through 2021. Bring it on. hashtag hashtag

The climate crisis is changing how we do journalism, according to investigative journalist and author Mark Lee Hunter.

06/05/2024

My story with Loujein Haj Youssef of Radio Rozana and Bissane El-Cheikh of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism has made the first cut of the One World Media Awards for refugee reporting. Glad to be in this remarkable "long list" company of 10 varied approaches to a complex (and scary) subject, with a piece that exposed the wholesale flight of Syria's doctors. We reported, among other things, that poverty is driving the trend. Coincidentally or not, wages for doctors in Syria were doubled after the story came out. Congratulations in advance to whoever wins the award.

REFUGEE REPORTING AWARD

Alone and Exploited | The New York Times | Hannah Dreier

How I rescue people caught in Sudan’s war | Al Jazeera Digital | Tierney Bonini

Russia’s war won’t stop me becoming chess grandmaster | Al Jazeera Digital | Tierney Bonini

Children of War | Fresh Start Media | Chris Rogers

Traces Left Behind | BBC | Thomas Naadi

Trafficking Inc. | ICIJ | Pramod Acharya

The Rohingya fled genocide. Now, violence stalks them as refugees | The Washington Post | Rebecca Tan

Ethiopian Facebook for migrant workers enables human trafficking, forced labour in Saudia Arabia, advocates say | Zecharias Zelalem

The Vanishing diaspora of Syria’s Physicians | The New Arab | Mark Lee Hunter

Europe’s Nameless Dead | Lighthouse Report

A year-long data-driven ARIJ investigation establishes that official figures on the emigration of Syrian doctors are a steep underestimate. Many qualified physicians are “invisible” because they lack accreditation in receiving countries.

31/01/2024

Reminder: Nous fêtons "Pour Sophie et tous les autres" demain soir aux Quatre Vents, 21 bis rue des Ecoles, Paris 5, de 19-21h. See you there!

24/01/2024

Réservez la date! Le 1er février, nous fêtons "Pour Sophie et tous les autres: Enquêtes pour le droit de choisir sa mort". 19h-21h Aux Quatre Vents, 21 bis rue des Ecoles à Paris. See you there!