The Challenge of The American-Made Benny

We had numerous challenges in reporting, producing, and in making the decision to ultimately publish this story. We feel this story is incomplete due to access issues and time constraints inherent with MediaStorm's approach to a workshop story. Sometimes you can learn as much from your shortcomings as from your successes. As such, we hope this will serve as an important case study about the ethics of storytelling. - Brian Storm, Executive Producer, MediaStorm Unanswered Questions: On the Limits of the Single-Subject Interview by Eric Maierson By any measure, the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop is an intense week. It is a product-focused experience, meaning that unlike in other teaching environments we are wholly focused on producing the most compelling story possible, one that demonstrates the collective skills of the participants and the MediaStorm staff. The week consists of one day of lectures, three days in the field, and another three days editing. Workshop…

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Ethical Reporting on Children by Discover the Journey

Our work often involves reporting on children and at times in conflict zones or areas when a child's safety or integrity may be compromised. In a recent review of our parental release we came across a helpful resource from Discover the Journey (DTJ) for storytellers working with children. The Child Protection Manifesto from DTJ explores policies and best practices that inform how and why to tell stories about children at risk, based on thousands of hours spent listening to children around the world. In addition to adhering to UNICEF’s “Principles for Ethical Reporting on Children,” the Child Protection Manifesto explains DTJ’s philosophy and outlines specific guidelines for media usage and media gathering. The following guidelines are taken from the Child Protection Manifesto, Edition 001:Media Usage We do not use any images/video that are exploitative of the child. More specifically we will not use photos of inflated suffering. So often these are misrepresentations…

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