In the News Changemaker Program, IN/LAB collaborated with a group of young people from outer city Stockholm to turn lived pain points into speculative concepts that reimagine what news experiences could be like in the future.
BACKGROUND
Previous research has shown how news coverage of the outer city areas is almost exclusively about crime (83%), and that young people from the areas express that they often feel like their areas are being portrayed in a negative light. We also know that those with parents born in other countries more often report that they do not trust Swedish news, and there are no signs of that changing.
We think it is high time to stop talking about this group's attitude toward news media – we need to talk with them. During the fall of 2022, we therefore partnered up with the youth community center Fritiden and invited 10 young people with critical attitudes to news media to join us for a 10-week co-creative process. The goal was to better understand current issues and prototype possible future news experiences. We called it the News Changemaker Program.
WHAT WE DID The 10-week News Changemaker Program utilised design thinking to turn identified problems into speculative solutions. Our young participants created six news experiences that invite reflection around what news journalism is and could be. What they all have in common is that they are ideated by and for young people who feel like the news isn't catering to them.
FEEDBACK Quotes from participants: "This program was something I didn’t think I would join, but anything can really happen!"
"It has been fun to shape the future"
"You got your voice heard"
TEAM Agnes Stenbom, Head of Lab, IN/LAB
Belenn Bekele, Community Researcher, IN/LAB Hermon Gebretensaye, Youth Leader, Fritiden / Sundbybergs kommun
LINKS
Learn all about the News Changmaker program at https://www.whatifthenews.com/
