pop-up student journalism on refugees in paris

Pop-up Reporting #refugees #Paris

Global Student SquareCSPA March 2017#cspasc17 @GSSVoices

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What’s a pop-up?

NYT: The Way North

Find audience first Publish in real

time/social media

Empathy, human-centered design

Pick a constraint and embrace it

Pop-up (päp/əp): An intensive, immersive experience in which journalists and community partners focus on a single topic for a limited time, using mobile, social and other digital tools that disrupt publishing norms to shine light, share and build awareness about an urgent social issue.

Conventional news vs. pop-up journalism

● Yesterday, today, tmw ● Beat model - experience,

sources, contacts (bias?)● All stories, big and small● Engagement comes after● Deadline, format, tools,

publication are pre-set● Never unplugs

● I’m here today● Fresh eyes - learn by

doing, discover (fail?)● One deep dive● Find partners, readers first● Publish all the time; seek

best tool for the story● Must unplug

“Your phone is now a refugee’s phone”

Student engagement

Student engagement

● Six-week classroom prep, then six-week project sprint● Trips to camp, Claver on Saturday mornings; peer mentors +

production during class time ● Free tools/apps: Infogr.am, Issuu, Medium, Piktochart, Steller,

Slidely, SoundCloud, Spotify, StoryMapJS, Thinglink,Timeline JS ● Mobile media kits (monopod, phone mount, mics)● Wix (zero coding; mobile app allows live chats with visitors)● 36 stories, videos, playlists, galleries, graphics, illustrations● Cost: $150 to buy domain name and zap ads

Summing up

● Strong buy-in from ASP — “yes and!” from admin, advisory teachers, students, parents

● Strong buy-in from Claver — trusted us, helped us learn and report more accurately, wisely

● Fast-moving story, unexpected changes - practice your pivot● Less Wix, more mobile (avoid post-production)● No showcase, too much pizza — launch party next time

What worked/lessons learned

“It seems as if the world has closed its eyes on refugees. We can’t help but notice that they are here today; we hope they

are gone tomorrow. The issues that affect their everyday lives are ignored ….

“The needs of others should not be neglected. Awareness is the first step towards change, something that our community

is committed to achieving.”

—Amanda Garcia Cestari, Web team leader, Here Today

DIY pop-up:

● Identify your issue - empathy interviews● Get admin on board - field trips, mobile phones, use of

social media, community involvement● Find local NGO - your grassroots partner, audience● Set up social media feeds and #. Have “the talk”● Adopt a growth mindset - not failing, prototyping ● Create a CMS on Google Drive, download app also● Host and/or # the project outside your pub, then link

“Students … reported (in) a temporary, virtual news space, live with cellphones from key places where poverty is being challenged ….

“We believed that changing the reporting structures would change reporting practices and bring students closer to grassroots voices. Thus, the conventional newsroom was replaced …”

—”Pop-Up Newsroom as News Literacy,” Melissa Wall, David Baines & Devadas Rajaram, MILID Yearbook 2014

“We need a new genre of travel writing, gleaned from the stories refugees and migrants tell housing officials, charity centres, immigration officers, health workers and school admissions staff ….

“The stories of the millions … trying to reach Europe are the travellers’ tales that define our times.”

—“Is Travel Writing Dead?” by Lindsey Hilsum, Granta, Winter 2017

www.globalstudentsquare.org beatrice@globalstudentsquare.org

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