How to use this guide

Before we get started, we want to be clear this is not a how-to guide. There is no checklist, one-size fits all model, or comprehensive approach to this type of reporting. What this guide does offer is a series of suggestions, helpful tools/tips, advice, and lessons learned from journalists, filmmakers, and media organizations — all of whom are experimenting with their reporting approaches.

If you’re the metaphor type of person, think about this guide more like a buffet than a ten-course meal — take the parts that work for you and your reporting, and leave the rest. We encourage you to come back and revisit it — what you’ll hopefully come away with is a set of tools for different ways to engage with the communities you are reporting in and the people you are reporting about.