Kettunen described her work with Roma immigrants in Finland to produce new insights and frames to the discussion about the migration of the Roma people. Ylikoski talked about her experiences of approaching the huge and complicated issue of climate change and related politics from a local perspective. You can watch the video (17 minutes) of the talk here.
Also, as an introduction, researcher Mikko Hautakangas talked about the background of the concept. ‘Conciliatory’ does not mean that the aim is to turn journalists into conflict mediators, but rather that journalism about social conflicts could benefit from the principles and methods of mediation and restorative dialogue. “Our approach is that conflicts in the society are not a problem, but dealing with them badly is“, Hautakangas explained.
So how can conciliatory journalism help in dealing with them better? Kettunen and Ylikoski presented a set of concrete methods and steps in the journalistic process that they have used in their work. For example, how to choose the viewpoint for the story and how to build trust with the interviewees? How to support careful listening and a real dialogue between all parties? And how to transfer this dialogue in the article, too? How to negotiate the terminology used, or how the sources want to be addressed? How to avoid stereotypical visualization and enhance the agency of the portrayed people? What about the aftermath – what are the interviewees’ costs and rewards of participating in the process, and how can journalists support their safety in the public discussion?
In the discussion, the forum participants exchanged ideas and experiences of working with or studying similar cases, such as coverage of the Roma people in Sweden. It was noted, that sometimes the conflict-sensitive issues require zooming in (i.e. providing local perspective to the global issue of climate) and sometimes zooming out (i.e. focusing on the European perspective of the Roma people instead of local experiences) in order to be able to address them in a conciliatory manner.
The next Forum Talk will take place on 18th March, when we will be hearing from Danish Mikkel Gudsøe from the Constructive Institute. He will introduce the “Bridge-Building Toolbox for Journalists” that he has been working on.