When people travel they face new challenges, new realities that include different cultural, social, ideological, religious patterns, etc. The short-term traveler observes, takes some photos and hardly interacts with the comunity. He/she is the tourist. However, for people starting a migratory journey, knowing that their return to their land will be difficult, if not impossible, things are different.
It’s imperative and urgent to know in depth the new context, because there are many things to organize: the whole life in a territory or community barely known. Language, laws and customs, the functioning of institutions, health, education,… there’s a lot to learn. In addition, there is the need to continue developing one’s own identity, incorporating elements of the new context to one’s own personal and family construction.
Through methodologies that deploy digital journalism workshops, we not only train migrants in the technical use of different digital tools and resources. We also get them closer to the communities with which they will relate in the future. Newcomers first need to locate themselves in the context, to observe it, to understand it and to know it. This is facilitated by these first practices of digital journalism. And it goes even further – digital journalism is a good instrument to start generating personal and / or professional relationships and “establish a conversation” within the new context.
When selecting good practices for our Digital Welcome training, we found experiences like Young reporters: awakening concerns and Cintra’s Radio. These are examples of how digital journalism techniques allow us to relate to the host country, understand it, interact and reflect on it. When we speak of critical digital journalism, which seeks dialogue with the host community, we also mean influence, interaction, changes (for example, raising awareness) and adaptation to the new environment.
Projects such as the Infomigranti or Young Journalist emphasize the techniques and tools available to exercise the profession of digital reporter, including the use of mobile devices to make it more accessible to everyone. Digital journalism also meets the need to be productive, contribute to the new context and begin to build a new professional future.
Other good practices, such as WeReport: Making interviews and Syrmania-The life of people from Syria in Germany, which facilitate exchange of information on the migratory experiences of other refugees, combine tech training and personal empowerment. Emphasis is placed on the opportunity to communicate emotions and thoughts, and the chance to be known.
There is something transversal in all these projects: through motivating challenges (project based learning), participants acquire technological competences related to the journalistic profession. On the one hand, the effective and practical use of the written and oral language to communicate, structure and present the messages; on the other hand, the competences related to the treatment of images and digital photography and/or radio and digital television. These competencies linked to the journalistic profile will allow them to up-skills themselves professionally, adapt to their environment and begin to interact and, therefore, design a better future.