Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Empathy as an investigative tool: how to map systems to come up with story ideas

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This is a pretty good article for journalists discussing how to map systems to come up with story ideas. It does lean heavily on a trait in journalism I dislike - the idea of picking one person to build your story around. I know (and the article makes much of this) that this depends on and brings empathy into the reporting. But it also leads to misrepresentation, and it also tends to push people into pre-set roles (like 'victim' or boss 'who calls the shots'). But still - this is a minor point to complain about in what is otherwise a strong article that gets into the sort of detail you want to get into not only when you're a journalist but when you're looking into anything at all. It's a good class exercise, for example. Make the connections and follow where they lead and you'll be much less likely to be fooled by fake news or even a shallow representation of the real news.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Apr 24, 2024 6:33 p.m.

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