Collaborative Ideation

At the 2018 International Journalism Festival in Perugia, about 40 journalists, science communicators, developers, designers, and others working to connect science and journalism, gathered for a 60-min collaborative ideation. The session was co-organised by 12 organisations, and  focused on aiding focusing to better public engagement in of climate change issues through journalism and science communications.

This 60-min session had has one single mission: to gather as many ideas as possible for solutions to the identified challenges around climate change reporting as possible.

The session was divided into 5 stages: 

1. Understand (10 min)
   We gathered as many challenges from the group as possible. The challenges were divided into three categories, namely Story, Formats and Resources.
2. Group (5 min)
   The participants grouped themselves according to three above mentioned categories. 
3. Define (10 min)
   Each group discussed all the challenges that were collected in the ‘Understand’ phase, and developed two challenges collectively. The groups were then asked to turn the selected challenges into “How Might We” questions, one of the key element of Design Thinking to encourage active brainstorming.
4. Ideate (20 min)
   Through the ‘How Might We” questions, the groups discussed and developed possible solutions to the challenges they have identified. The goal was not to develop a refined solution agreed by everyone in the group, but rather collect as many ideas as possible. 
5. Share (5 min)
   The facilitators were asked to summarise the outcome by sharing the selected challenges, “How Might We” questions and ideas that were generated from each group.

After the session in Perugia, the outcomes of the session were documented in "Collaborative Ideation: Climate Change Reporting - Challenges and Ideas for Solutions", a 11-page Google doc that lists 6 challenges the group collaboratively formulated during the session, and a list of solutions per challenge.

This was a joint effort with the facilitators and lead contributors from organisations including Formicablu, Wellcome Trust, ICFJ, Code For Africa, United Nations University, Public Media Alliance, Climate Tracker, Clean Energy Wire (CLEW), Outliers Collective, Backyard Media, and the European Forest Genetic Resources Programme, who co-organised this session. 

The next step is to go beyond to get even bigger picture of the challenges around climate change reporting experienced by the journalists and readers. With this background, the organisers have collaborated in launching an “Open Call for Challenges: Climate Change Reporting”.

Everyone is welcome to share their inputs to this open call, not only journalists who are covering climate change, but also (natural and social) scientists, science communicators, designers, developers, activists, indigenous peoples, business communities, artists, people engaged in agriculture, fishery, forest services, etc. We also want to gather the points of view of news consumers, so that we can offer insights to the journalism communities on how audiences see their reporting.

Join us, for this collaborative effort to gather the challenges around climate change reporting. If you would like to know more about this initiative, contact Rina for more information: info[AT]thelookoutstation.com