The stick figure on the door: unconscious ways we exclude each other "In terms of contributions under an article, there was such a collection of ideas and interpretations of how othering has impacted our members. There were thoughts on being othered as a US Republican supporter; on growing up gay in the 50s; on growing up with ginger hair in the 60s; on being the only white person in a ‘non-white’ space; on living with a disability; on being a stay-at-home father. Members also raised philosophical questions – why do we see other people as threats, what is the problem with using the word privilege – and they provided solutions for how ‘not to other’. The striking photo journalism for this piece, taken from the Humanae project, helped to foster an open mind in the discussion." (Nabeelah, conversation editor) Read the piece in full.
The biggest story in the UK is not Brexit. It’s life expectancy "It’s one thing to believe in the power of an idea and another thing entirely to demonstrate it. In this piece, Danny Dorling sought to answer a question we put to him: what have we been missing while media attention on the United Kingdom has focused almost exclusively on the melodrama that is Brexit? As a geographer who’s been analysing mortality rates across the four countries of the UK for decades, Dorling’s answer can be summed up in two words: austerity kills. By not writing for a specific geographical audience, we could ask different questions and bring depth of understanding. This is the potential and power of transnational journalism." (Eliza, managing editor) Read the piece in full.
Meet Julian Brave NoiseCat – the 26-year-old shaping US climate policy "The news is full of, well, the same people every day. And the storyline is the same most of the time too: they’re fighting. Or stirring up a controversy. That’s why this intimate portrait of activist Julian Brave NoiseCat by Climate correspondent Eric Holthaus really is ‘unbreaking news’. It shines a light on a lesser heard voice that’s changing the world for the better. One of our founding principles is: ‘We don’t just tell you the problem, but also what can be done about it.’ NoiseCat is doing something about the problem every day." (Rob, founding editor) Read the piece in full here.
How governments use the internet to crush online dissent "Satire – one of the most difficult art forms to get right – is sometimes the perfect way to approach a serious topic like censorship and repression. The images to go with Morgan Meaker’s story, about how governments use the internet to crush online dissent, hit all the right notes for me. These newspaper images censored by Iranian civil servants and collected by artist Jan Dirk van der Burg illustrate Meaker’s findings on censorship while also telling a story. The written text focuses on the present, where censorship is often hidden. The image series, on the other hand, focuses on the days when censorship was as obvious as blue tape covering a newspaper. The two pieces of journalism compliment each other, creating a rich story by combining the past and the present, and text and visuals." (Lise, image editor) Read the piece in full here.
Europe spends billions stopping migration. Good luck figuring out where the money actually goes "Of all the articles we’ve published, this is definitely the one that stands out for me. It is the result of true teamwork. Data and illustration were woven together in a very technically challenging way, pushing the boundaries of what we could achieve on our platform." (Afonso, editorial designer) Read the piece in full here.
The new dot com bubble is here: it’s called online advertising "As someone who spends a lot of time trying to spread our articles far and wide, it’s pretty obvious why this is my pick. It’s the most shared article by our members and non-members alike. And it turned up everywhere on the internet. It’s a story about how billions of dollars are spent on online ads every year without any research reliably confirming that advertising actually results in profits. Madness. The kind of madness that people love to read about because it proves that the brightest minds don’t always know what they’re doing. But really, it’s just a great article – a perfect mix of entertaining storytelling, accessible research presented in an engaging way, and some really, really great one-liners." (Imogen, engagement editor) Read the piece in full here.