The CNN Academy 2023 journalism simulation

Earlier this month, CNN Academy once again hosted a week long journalism simulation at the Yas Creative Hub in Abu Dhabi. Some 110 participants from 30 countries were involved, consisting of both journalism students (from Ireland, Spain, the UAE, Malaysia, and Hong Kong) as well as other content creators from across global south. I designed the scenario, and ran it together with Jim Wallman (Stone Paper Scissors) and my CNN colleagues.

Last year’s simulation emphasized crisis reporting and investigative journalism. This year, by contrast, the focus was on climate change story-telling. The first day of the week was spent with a visit to the COP28 global climate summit in Dubai. Thereafter, everyone was organized into reporting teams and given their assignment: produce a 3 minute video report on how climate change is affecting the (fictional) low income, post-conflict country of “Brynania.”

Prior to being “sent” to Brynania, participants were provided with background materials on the country, including a video documentary and a wikipedia-type factbook. We also provided B-roll video and basic mobile journalism equipment. During the week they then had the opportunity to attend (simulated) press conferences and media scrums; interview (simulated) local officials, business leaders, experts and activists, and others; acquire (simulated) reports and backgrounders, and take part in a field visit to a (simulated) fishing village in Brynania’s world-famous “Mangrove National Park.” We also had a fully-functioning Twitter-like social media platform, where many hundreds of related and unrelated items were posted by (simulated) citizens, corporations, political parties, media, government agencies, and others.

There were a great many ways all of this could be reported. We identified almost twenty themes for which we had provided adequate information, sources, and potential audio-visual content.

• technical and scientific aspects
  • deforestation
  • green energy transition
  • ecosystems/biodiversity
  • agriculture/food security
  • extreme weather
• social-economic and political aspects
  • grassroots impacts (fishing villagers, others)
  • gender
  • social class/ethnicity/inequality
  • jobs/growth vs sustainability
  • state capacity and corruption
  • local politics
  • violence
  • activism/change-makers
• COP28 tie-ins
  • climate change mitigation and international responsibility
  • climate finance
  • global trends and trajectories
  • fossil fuels

Given that a three minute report might develop two or three major themes, there were hundreds of possibilities for each team to choose from. It was absolutely essential, therefore, for them to acquire information and then develop a focus and associated storyline that would be accurate, engaging, and informative.

We applied quite a lot of pressure and distractors. Deadlines. Emails from their producer. Late-night developments. The cacophony of social media, including rabbit-holes and conspiracy theories. Team management (most of the teams were diverse and multinational, meaning most of the students didn’t know their teammates until it all started).

It helped too that most of our roleplayers were themselves journalists. They knew all the complications that an interviewee can throw at a journalist, and did an outstanding job of challenging participants without overwhelming them.

Interspersed with all of this were workshops on a broad range of professional topics, from core skills (data management, scripting/paper edit) through to climate change reporting, gender dimensions, and the impact of generative AI on newsgathering. We also maintained a sort of mobile journalism help desk, the “MoJo Emporium.”

It all went very well again this year. In a post simulation survey, students overwhelmingly reported that they they were highly engaged, acquired relevant and useful skills, enjoyed interacting with teammates from around the world, and would strongly recommend the experience to others.

Almost a full day was devoted to devoted debrief and discussion. In this, two general themes stood out to me:

• Storytelling as an art and craft. The best teams addressed an important element of global climate change in a way that was clear, informed, and engaging.
• Soft skills. Under time pressure, teams could forget some key interpersonal skills. Teams had to work on establishing a connection with interviewees, treating them respectfully, and developing relationships and sources.

Even though the simulation very much took place in the context of modern digital journalism, it was interesting to me that neither of these are new skills. Effective storytelling is more than two million years old, first expressed by stone age communities through the tales and experiences they recounted around the campfire. The second skill is as old as journalism itself.

And here, perhaps, a key value-added of simulations like these. All of our students knew this. All of them had attended classes and lectures and read books and articles. They were smart and motivated. But it is one thing to read and hear about journalism, and another to practice it under pressure and then be able to reflect on one’s performance—which is what CNN Academy is all about.