A more-than-human reflexivity: Creative workshops for reimagining environmental journalism

Abstract

Despite recent emotional and embodied turns in journalism studies, reflexivity concerning the more-than-human has received little attention. In this paper, we aim to remedy that by discussing our engagement with 24 international and experienced journalism students in a creative workshop designed to nurture their understanding of the more-than-human, i.e., other species and ecological processes with which humans are closely embedded. Reflections on the more-than-human, we submit, may empower practitioners to report on the environment in more empathetic and mobilising ways. Creative methods, we argue, constitute a promising way beyond established journalistic discourses. Based on a thematic analysis of workshop discussions and ensuing essays, we shed light on students’ thinking on how a more-than-human reflexivity—which, among other things, involves giving nature a voice via emotional, embodied knowledge, and an ethic of collaboration with relevant communities—constitutes a small but uniquely constructive step in imagining new journalistic practices of environmental journalism.