{"id":2364,"date":"2022-12-13T13:00:05","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T13:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2022\/12\/13\/social-issues-journalism-that-expands-perspective-and-empathy\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T19:47:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T19:47:45","slug":"social-issues-journalism-that-expands-perspective-and-empathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2022\/12\/13\/social-issues-journalism-that-expands-perspective-and-empathy\/","title":{"rendered":"Making good journalistic trouble, Part V: Expanding perspective and empathy"},"content":{"rendered":"    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><em>EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: In a series on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/stories\/reframing-narrative-stories-to-help-solve-societal-problems\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>making \u201cgood trouble\u201d through journalism<\/strong><\/a>, Paul A. Kramer of Vanderbilt University argues for seven approaches that can help create partnerships between writers and readers to better address social problems. From his introduction: \u201cThe best narrative non-fiction writing on social problems \u2026 grapples with a particular social reality in order to question it, subject it to critical attention and convince readers that its existence and continuance is not inevitable.\u201d&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><em>The fifth of the re-frames calls for solidarity: stories that underscore what people have in comment. Additional approaches will be posted this week and next.<\/em><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><em>We need to stand with the people whom this problem affects.<\/em><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Solidarity projects present things readers know are problems in the abstract or in the lives of others, but in which the particular people affected by the problem lay on the peripheries of the reader\u2019s circle of \u201cwe.\u201d In readers\u2019 minds, the problem just doesn\u2019t seem to affect them or the people they care about most. Here the writer\u2019s job is to bring those affected closer, in their full, complicated, idiosyncratic humanity, so readers can redefine their relationship with story subjects and widen their sense of who matters. The goal is to help readers stand alongside those most affected as they grapple with oppressive realities.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Useful approaches here cultivate perspective-taking and empathy-building, implicitly asking readers to consider:&nbsp;<em>What might it be like to be this person, and experience what they do?<\/em>&nbsp;Writers can try to immerse readers as much as possible in the tactile, lived experiences of those they may have regarded as far removed from themselves.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Here it can be crucial to make sure readers get to hear from the affected in their own words and voices, and through their actions. This opens a kind of person-to-person link between reader and subject \u2014 &nbsp;a highly mediated and limited one, of course, but also one with potentially transformative power.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>To align reader and subject on an equal, moral plane of solidarity, writers can represent their main characters as active self-advocates, so that readers\u2019 can relate to a mutual sense of agency. Writers also may include characters involved in admirable solidarity work themselves, serving as guides for readers as they navigate across sometimes formidable moral distances.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-image mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"425\" height=\"425\" src=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DianaHubbell-e1670885957565.jpg\" alt=\"Journalist Diana Hubbell\" class=\"wp-image-9441\" style=\"width:200px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DianaHubbell-e1670885957565.jpg 425w, https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DianaHubbell-e1670885957565-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DianaHubbell-e1670885957565-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DianaHubbell-e1670885957565-40x40.jpg 40w, https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DianaHubbell-e1670885957565-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DianaHubbell-e1670885957565-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DianaHubbell-e1670885957565-180x180.jpg 180w, https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DianaHubbell-e1670885957565-360x360.jpg 360w, https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DianaHubbell-e1670885957565-115x115.jpg 115w, https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DianaHubbell-e1670885957565-230x230.jpg 230w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 425px) 100vw, 425px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Diana Hubbell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>For a model of solidaristic writing, take&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eater.com\/22589445\/palm-oil-thailand-plantation-spft-jiew-kang-jue-pattana?src=longreads\">Diana Hubbell\u2019s 2021 narrative, \u201cThere Has Been Blood,\u201d published in Eater magazine<\/a>. The piece tells the story of Thai farmers struggling to retake state-owned lands illegally occupied by large-scale palm oil companies. Hubbell accompanies the farmers as they as engage in risky, courageous land seizures, cultivate subsistence farms, borrow tactics from movements of the landless in Brazil, set up their own small, self-run palm oil cooperative and promote ideals of food sovereignty. The palm oil companies send out assassins; government officials fail to investigate.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-quote mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Most of the land-rights activists, she writes, were \u201cordinary people who never owned much of anything, drawn by the promise of a plot of earth where they could grow enough food for themselves and their children. For Chai and Usa, after nearly 30 years together scraping by on manual labor jobs and sorting through recyclables for pocket change, operating a tiny general store and having 10 rai (about 4 acres) to call their own felt like a small miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>The piece tells of atrocious violence and suffering; Killers calmly shoot activists in front of their children. But Hubbard is scrupulous in standing with the activists rather than looking down at them from on high, portraying their resourcefulness and determination without pitying them. The reader\u2019s outrage and anger are energized by bearing vicarious witness to people wh9 who remain morally in charge.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Genuine solidarity requires standing beside people who face challenging circumstances as they are \u2014 their differences notwithstanding \u2014 on the grounds of moral equality, without assimilating them to asn assumed norm. But it can be easily mistaken for (and can slide into) distancing, hierarchical relationships of sympathy and pity.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Where sympathy or pity are in play, writers can turn people who experience the problem into virtuous, suffering, hapless victims \u2014 or mold them in the image of envisioned readers in order to make them \u201crelatable.\u201d That they don\u2019t get to exist in the text beyond their pain and anguish \u2014 which readers embrace from a safe, perhaps even satisfying distance \u2014 can mirror their seeming powerlessness to resist the forces that assail them.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>All this said, with these cautions in mind, bonds of solidarity between writer, reader and subject are achievable, in ways that can transform readers\u2019 sense of \u201cwe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-spacer mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"block block-legacy-page-blocks legacy-page-blocks  \">\n\n    <h2 class=\"legacy-page-blocks-subhead\">Related Posts<\/h2>\n\n    <div class=\" legacy-page-blocks-text\">\n            <p><a href=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/stories\/reframing-narrative-stories-to-help-solve-societal-problems\/\">Introduction<\/a>:\u00a0Making good trouble<\/p>\n<p>I.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2022\/12\/07\/exposing-social-problems-to-engage-readers\/\">Exposure<\/a>:\u00a0Highlighting overlooked problems<\/p>\n<p>II.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2022\/12\/08\/immediacy-proximity-social-issues-journalism\/\">Urgency<\/a>:\u00a0Revealing the immediacy of problems<\/p>\n<p>III.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2022\/12\/09\/powerful-journalism-empowers-people-to-action\/\">Activation<\/a>:\u00a0Challenging a sense of powerlessness<\/p>\n<p>IV.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2022\/12\/12\/social-issues-journalism-cause-effect\/\">Re-specification<\/a>:\u00a0Reconsidering causes and effects of a problem<\/p>\n<p>V.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2022\/12\/13\/social-issues-journalism-that-expands-perspective-and-empathy\/\">Solidarity<\/a>:\u00a0Standing with those affected<\/p>\n<p>VI.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2022\/12\/14\/connecting-daily-life-to-social-justice-issues\/\">Responsibility<\/a>:\u00a0Connecting action to consequence<\/p>\n<p>VII.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2022\/12\/15\/social-issues-journalism-values-perspective\/\">Value-switching<\/a>:\u00a0Considering different moral stances<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2022\/12\/16\/social-issues-journalism-narrative-frames\/\">Conclusion<\/a>:\u00a0The gift of narrative nonfiction<\/p>\n\n    <\/div>\n\t\n<\/div>    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-spacer mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><em>NEXT: The shared responsibility for social problems<\/em><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>***<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><em><strong>Paul A. Kramer&nbsp;<\/strong>is an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/history\/bio\/paul-kramer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">associate professor at Vanderbilt University<\/a>, where he teaches history and non-fiction writing. He is the author of several academic studies and essays that have been published by major news sites. His book, \u201cThe Blood of Government,\u201d has won several awards, including being named a finalist for the Philippines National Book Award in the social science category.<\/em><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stories that explore social issues through a solidarity frame can help readers relate to the people most affected<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"topics":[],"authors":[379],"issue":[],"class_list":["post-2364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays-on-craft","authors-paul-a-kramer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Making good journalistic trouble, Part V: 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