THE PROGRAM
The 10-week News Changemaker Program utilised design thinking to turn identified problems into speculative solutions. The program built on six phases, which are all outlined below.
PHASE 1
Recruiting the Changemakers
Our local partner Fritiden helped us identify potential participants in the program. We invited all interested people (ages 16-19) from the Fritiden network to take a short survey about news media, and thereafter invited candidates to an interview. We recruited 10 participants who showed critical attitudes to the current offers of news media (and were willing to work together with us to meet them!).
PHASE 2
Agreeing on our culture
We started the program with a workshop about culture. The Changemakers collectively decided that the following principles should steer the way they worked together with each other and us:
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We will help each other
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We will be creative & present
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We will contribute to psychological safety
PHASE 3
Meeting the newsrooms
The Changemakers visited Schibsted-newsrooms to get insight into the current state of news media. This was an opportunity for them to ask questions to journalists and editors, as well as hear about ongoing projects on e.g. TikTok and Snapchat.
PHASE 4
Identifying issues
In a Speed Boat-workshop, the Changemakers identified current issues that are impacting the way they relate to, consume and trust editorial news media:
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Negative impact on our mental health
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Unappealing media formats
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Repetitive news experience
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Lacking perspectives
PHASE 5
Ideating solutions
Based on the identified issues, the Changemakers were provided with “How Might We” statements to ideate solutions based on. To cultivate creative approaches, we provided various workshop constraints (e.g., "activate min. 2 senses" or "include a social feature").
6 speculative concept ideas were generated in these workshops.
PHASE 6
Prototyping news experiences
To bring the speculative concepts to life we hired the freelance 3D artist Marien Singbo.