Meet our Advisory Board
We Learn From The Best. We Learn From You
As Outriders is maturing as an organisation and entering the 2.0 phase of its development, we have started to open ourselves for the second round of feedback from our readers, supporters, partners and other stakeholders.
For how can we know if we are going where we need to if we don’t ask?
Journalism is a Public Service
Our mission is to tell the stories of the world in their best suited form. The world seems to have become more accessible — more connected. However, as more and more media (especially in Central and Eastern Europe) let go of their foreign correspondents, the polarisation of public opinion and media deepens. As a result we think that, paradoxically, world has become more difficult to grasp and understand. We want to address that issue and provide our readers with quality news on the world and its challenges in the most appropriate form. However, the way we define our readers, the issues we want to report on, the working process and the outreach channel calls for constant testing that can help us know if we stay on the right track.
We are about to launch a user research to investigate the needs of our readers and our potential readers in Poland and abroad. We have also already taken another step into that direction which was to appoint an Advisory Board that we invite you the get to know.
Meet Irene Caselli, Eva Constantaras, Karolina Grzywnowicz, Kirsten Han, Michał Wolniak, Tomasz Sulewski and Mushon Zer-Aviv aka mushon.
Getting these stars on board has been a big deal for us and I’d like to explain why.
Journalism Shouldn’t Stop at the Borders
I have borrowed this phrase from the Hostwriter team lead by Tabea Grzeszyk. At Outriders we believe that modern journalism should span beyond borders. We are also aware of the risks connected with reporting from different parts of the world: postcolonial narratives, missing context, a patronising approach towards developing countries. It is a challenge to be accurate and explain the complexity of totally different realities. This is why among the experts we have invited to advise us, there are people who are and reported from very different regions: from South East Asia through Latin America, Central Africa, Middle East to Southern and Eastern Europe. We hope that their inputs will help us stay sensitive and mindful while working on the stories covering diverse, local issues.
Keeping Our Interdisciplinary
We think that the mediascape has changed and as a result newsrooms have become more diverse. We ourselves are a group of experiences reporters, designers, coders, editors but also civil society activists turned journalists. We cherish this interdisciplinary approach and we wanted our Advisory Board team to reflect that. Apart from three experienced journalists we have invited communications specialists, a visual artist, and a media activist to guide us with their expertise.
Keep Learning
We want to and we need to keep learning. One way will be to make sure we are in a dialogue with our supporters and future subscribers, the other one is to learn from the best. That way we can deliver what we promise to: the stories of the world in their best suited form. Embracing diversity and welcoming feedback is a tough but rewarding strategy.
We will be reporting on this journey as we move forward and will soon introduce you to our Supervisory Board whose role will be a little different.
Hold us accountable, we will be grateful for that.