Visualising Desertification: Collaborative Storytelling Across European Festivals was a follow-up to an earlier initiative that brought together 50 professional investigative and photojournalists.
The project comprised five participatory workshops at major journalism festivals in 2025, engaging a further 50 participants – 25 investigative journalists and 25 photojournalists.
Each three-hour workshop included skill-building, story development and networking, with the aim of producing 25 collaborative story drafts on desertification. Following the workshops, mentorship refined these drafts into ten multimedia stories, published on platforms such as LAT-E. A digital toolkit co-created by participants provided resources for environmental journalism and will be disseminated via IJNET.
The project enhanced visual and investigative skills, raised awareness of desertification and promoted cross-border collaboration.
Timeline:
- June-October 2025: Workshops at European festivals:
- LASAL Festival Barcelona, Spain: Friday 06 June 2025;
- PhotoEspaña, Madrid, Spain: September 2025 (final date to be confirmed);
- DIG Festival Modena, Italy: Friday, 26 September 2025
- Internazionale Festival Ferrara, Italy: Friday, 03 October 2025
- Climate Arena Conference, Budapest, Hungary: 10-11 October 2025 (to be confirmed)
- October-November 2025: Mentorship, finalisation of the toolkit, publishing stories.
Trainers/Facilitators:
- Bruna Casas (photojournalist, workshop facilitator)
- Cush Munger (journalist, workshop facilitator)
