Design Thinking the Resistance
Journalists Need a Lesson in Empathy
Most people think of protests as large rallies with thousands of people in attendance. But for many on the fringes of the anti-Trump movement, this is not true. When I entered a gallery called Chinatown Soup, I realized that the art of protest takes many forms. People at the gallery sat on the floor surrounded piles of scrap paper and torn magazines — the byproducts of the postcards people were creating to mail to their representatives. This intimate environment suites the elderly, disabled, undocumented, or anyone who would not be able to come out publicly to a large gathering. This key insight is what inspired my pitch to the Guardian.
My cohort at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism was fortunate enough to part take in pitching our ideas in hopes to contribute to the Guardian’s project The Resistance Now. But we couldn’t pitch an idea based on our insights alone. Through the steps of design thinking, we were able to listen to the resistance community and come up with products or services based on their needs. Through this process, I learned that empathy is the heart of good design and ultimately — the heart of good journalism.
We talked to people at anti-Trump events and asked them what the challenges were in organizing and protesting. To truly understand the resistance community, we had to be thoughtful about our questions so that we wouldn’t lead them to answers that fit the preconceived ideas we had in our heads. I found that it takes sharp listening skills to find latent needs that the community would not outright tell us. This process also requires some humility in recognizing that journalists do not always know the best ways to approach a problem. As journalists (and designers), we must put aside what we think the story is or what a product should be. Rather, we must take into careful consideration the communities we serve while creating tools to help them.
Before we could think about tools to help the resistance community, we first had to define a problem. I found that smaller, intimate gatherings were generally overlooked by mainstream media. Instead, the focus was on larger protests are rallies. The lack of coverage meant that people were unaware of alternate forms of protest. People at these intimate gatherings were usually friends and found it challenging to promote these events beyond their network.
After gaining these insights, I was able to ideate a product — news alerts for events based on location and causes of interest. These alerts would include a weekly round-up of Guardian articles on various events that people may have missed, follow-up information and submissions from the resistance. Included are options to add events to a Google Calendar and to RSVP via Facebook. I tried to think of a tool that would be beneficial to both attendees and organizers. The alerts would be a way for people to know about the various events they could attend, both large and small scale and is also a way for organizers to make connections before, during and after the event.
We can elevate journalism by doing more than simply reporting a problem. We can contribute to the communities we serve. We could have created products and services based on our understanding alone. But without listening and empathizing first, there’s no way of knowing whether or not these tools would help them. And what is a tool if it is without good use?
