Appendix B. Ethical Storytelling Guidelines

“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.”​​—Audre Lorde, “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action”

As journalists, the authors of this report follow the Society of Professional Journalism’s Code of Ethics to seek the truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently, and be accountable and transparent. We investigate and analyze public policy, politics, cultural trends, and social issues and hold public officials to account. We seek to be accurate, authoritative, thorough, and fair.

We also seek to hold ourselves to a higher standard of ethical storytelling when we are reporting, researching, and writing about the private lives of individuals or families—often those who are unaccustomed to the spotlight and the glare of media attention. We seek to tell deeply personal stories that help us better reflect the impacts of public policy, politics, and cultural narratives and better understand and communicate the complexity of human life, our communities, our systems, and our world.

To support other researchers and journalists in telling stories with dignity, we developed this ethical storytelling guide. It recognizes that for too long, too many private individuals who do not belong to the majority white, middle-class culture have been exploited, misunderstood, “othered,” caricatured, or erased in the media. In addition to doing no harm, these guidelines also seek to repair, tell a fuller truth, and set the story straight.

At the Better Life Lab, we use character-driven, solutions-focused journalism that relies on rigorous data, academic research, and policy analysis as a key to our narrative change mission. Our journalism appears in a number of different genres in order to reach and impact diverse audiences. We write articles and op-eds that are published in mainstream media outlets. We podcast and have worked on video. We write reports, case studies, and toolkits that are published on New America’s website. We hold events, workshops, and convenings that are sometimes covered by the press. In addition to our journalism, we also do qualitative research and follow best practices for excellent “big tent” qualitative research: This means we ensure the topic is interesting and moving; the data is rigorous and credible; and the analysis is ethical, provides significance, aware of any author biases, and accomplishes what it set out to do. Below we outline some of our guiding principles.

We recognize that, as storytellers, reporters, researchers, and journalists, we are the stewards of the stories of others. We facilitate and create the space for the stories of others. We recognize others’ stories as the gifts they are. We treat people with the respect and dignity they deserve. We listen deeply. We take the time to develop mutual trust and seek to collaborate. This helps ensure that people’s voices are uplifted and they have agency in how and where their stories are shared and why. We ensure that we share common goals for the storytelling project.

We seek to feature lived experience alongside research, policy and political analysis, and scholarship in order to make cultural and political changes. Our reporting of that experience seeks to capture day-to-day interaction with policy as well as with the general public. For example, improving access to SNAP benefits may bring welcome family support, but it may not change the way a cashier looks at the benefit holder. We recognize that people are the best collaborators of their own lives and that personal experience is expertise. We ask the people closest to the problem for their ideas and perspectives on solutions.

We seek to report, facilitate, and convey stories of complex, “whole” authentic people and resist the tired tropes of “victim,” “hero,” “deserving,” “bootstrapper,” and other harmful and myopic yet pervasive media and cultural narratives. People are not their problems.

We use strengths-based framing and highlight human agency and the creativity and resilience people are often forced to use as strategies for survival in the face of explicit and implicit discrimination and bias, failed public policy and imagination, and multiple systems of oppression. We seek to practice solutions journalism, fully grounded in the challenges but highlighting real stories and data that show the potential for hope and change.

We value storytelling as an important component of social justice—connecting people and informing each other of their daily struggles and their ingenuity in surviving them. This means going deeper and showcasing complex stories that mainstream media typically sensationalizes for easy clickbait. We take time to do thorough research and speak to people directly impacted by policies.

We believe that the stories we tell should mirror the diverse experiences in the United States. Including multiple voices means counting people who have been dismissed. It means valuing the knowledge of people whose ideas, values, and cultures have been normalized as unimportant. We seek to reflect the complex intersections of race, income, gender, ethnicity, and refugee or immigration status that shape lived experiences.

Engaging with diverse populations often means understanding our participants’ positions and working to mitigate some of the systematic forces that have silenced some populations, such as fear due to anti-immigration laws and culture, language differences, education, income inequality, and geography. We recognize that we all may come from different backgrounds, and we acknowledge our privileges, power, and biases. We come as prepared as possible, having done background reporting to help us begin to understand complex, intersectional ecosystems and to engage people and communities with humility, open minds, and respect. We make real efforts to reach and build relationships with people who are often silenced. We recognize that working with trusted community partners is a key part of building trust and connection across differences. We work with trusted community partners in order to build on established relationships. Because many of the people we work with as interviewees, participants, and collaborators in our studies work long hours, we try to meet them at times and places that are most convenient for them. We sometimes conduct interviews while they are going to or at work. We work with translators in multiple languages. By sharing some questions and guidelines in advance, we give our storytellers time to process the information in their native language and English.

The systematic silencing of marginalized people happens in every field—including journalism and academia. As a result, we are conscientious about seeking out and citing diverse authors, particularly Black, Indigenous, and people of color who are historically under-cited.

Storytelling is a privileged and intimate collaboration that demands many responsibilities that we take seriously.

We obtain and maintain ongoing consent from people willing to share their stories. The storytelling process will happen through ongoing conversations. We provide participants with a topic list in advance—either in writing or verbally, based on their preferences—so that they’re aware of the subjects and themes from which we will base questions. This will give them reflection time. This will also allow the interview to flow conversationally, a methodology that helps ease the rigidity of the interview process. We keep the scope of the questions focused on what’s necessary for the completion of the project, though collaborators are free to share beyond this scope and we will always ask if there’s anything they’d like to add.

We communicate clearly from the outset the goals of the project, the goal of the story, how their stories will be used, and what impact work published publicly may have. We will keep storytellers up to date on project changes as they happen.

We set clear boundaries and expectations, and we communicate clearly our role as journalists, facilitators, and storytellers and what we can and can’t offer. We discuss the narrator’s expectations and clearly communicate our own. We explain the editorial process and what we do and do not have control over—including the limits of visibility to promote change, audience reach, responses to their narratives, story headlines, and publication deadlines. We protect our narrators’ privacy and discuss any potential safety concerns in advance. We send over consent forms in advance, allow time to read them over, and answer any questions to the best of our ability.

Within the consent forms, we inform narrators that their participation is voluntary. They are co-creators and have a say in whether and how to use photographs, images, and other representations of them and their lives. We will inform them that they reserve the right to decline to answer any question, and they can refuse the use of their quotes and/or narratives after the research is completed. We will circle back with them before publication to fact-check to ensure that their quotes and narratives are accurate, and we explain that their quotes and/or narratives cannot be retracted once published.

Consent forms for our journalistic work will explain clearly the topics we want to explore, their right to decline to answer any questions, and the fact that we will share their quotes with them before publication for review. We also ask for consent from parents or guardians before interviewing anyone under the age of 18 and strongly encourage that an adult be present during the interview. We explain that since we are following best journalism practices, they do not have the ability to change or alter their quotes. This is an opportunity to ensure that the tone and context are accurate and all facts are consistent and correct with what was shared in the interview. To be clear, the consent forms, along with sharing quotes ahead of publication, is a protocol that does not apply to politicians, public officials, others in a position of power (i.e., corporate leaders, police officers, etc.), or anyone whose role it is to interface with the media or any other situation where the person interviewed has been accused publicly of causing harm.

For qualitative research and convenings, we follow best research practices and compensate families or provide honoraria to recognize the time collaborators spend with us. We will list the honorarium amount in the consent form and make it clear to collaborators that refusing to participate in any part of the process—such as answering a question—will not disqualify them from receiving the compensation. If warranted, we can also compensate community partners for their time and work connecting us to people.

For journalism that we hope to place in mainstream media, we will communicate clearly that we typically don’t pay directly and that mainstream media editors frown on what’s called “checkbook journalism.” The Society of Professional Journalists’ Ethics Committee condemns the practice and says it “threatens to corrupt journalism” and that direct payments may mean the story we’re collaborating on won’t be published in a desired outlet.

However, we recognize that many families are struggling financially. We can and will use our best judgment when it comes to paying for meals we share or reimburse expenses, like transportation, that enable our work together. We can have conversations as a team about when compensation may make sense. And if we decide (on a case-by-case basis) that it does, we will disclose that fully to our editorial partners.

Just as we clearly communicate from the outset the goal of the project, the audience, and how the story will be used, we also make clear that collaborators may opt out at any point. We use best journalism practices, checking quotes and facts, potentially sharing relevant portions of drafts, and addressing any collaborator concerns before publication.

For our qualitative work, and when we help facilitate for the people who want to tell their own stories, we invite collaborators in as collaborators to the storytelling process—from story shaping to data collection to writing to publishing to sharing for impact. We will share final products and seek to ensure, where possible, that they are accessible to individuals and communities. We recognize that for immigrant populations who do not read English, the stories written in English are not accessible. In these circumstances, the responsibility to be accountable to these individuals is even greater. As a result, we aim to create a space for some of the refugee/immigrant collaborators to directly tell their stories to the audience of our published work. For example, in a past project on early childhood education in the immigrant/refugee community, we organized a panel of all immigrant/refugee women with a translator to tell their stories after our report was published.

We will either share relevant portions of narratives or quotes with collaborators or read material back to them before publication to ensure the tone and cited information accurately depict their experience. This provides an opportunity to ensure accuracy, but it does not afford participants a chance to change or alter quotes or the story.

We seek to use trauma-informed practices. While sharing one’s story can be healing, it can also be re-traumatizing. We seek to be supportive and responsive and offer choices and agency to the collaborator to prioritize their well-being. We will avoid telling our collaborators that we “know” or “understand” their unique experiences. We will not be overly interrogative or pushy if someone is hesitant to share. We will work to keep the scope of our questions relevant to the subject matter of our project. We will operate through a people-first lens.

We follow some basic steps to promote good communication with participants or those trusting us with their story. We share an agenda and some questions in written form in advance, and when possible, we use captioning available through Zoom, GoogleMeet, and Otter, to include individuals with hearing, learning, and other cognitive diversity. For audio stories and podcasts, we produce an accessible written transcript.

Many of our events, which are run by New America’s Central Communications team, are recorded, with the permission of speakers, for participants who cannot attend, who do not have stable internet, and who want to review the content after the event at a pace that works for them. When registering for New America events on our website, the team at New America provides a comment box for accessibility: “If you have a disability and may require accommodations in order to fully participate, please indicate here.”

A translator is often present at our panel discussions depending on the participants. We are constantly learning. If you have recommendations that would make our content more accessible, please send them to betterlifelab@newamerica.org.

As researchers, we seek answers to big and challenging questions because our aim is to make social and cultural changes. We recognize that these questions are overwhelming. As a result, we aim to scaffold, and use shared vocabularies, neutral ideas, and accessible language. Early questions are intentionally simple and broad. Asking individuals to name or define concepts or specific resources opens the most room for them to explain the details of their daily routines and prevents us from making assumptions about their lives. For example, in order to learn what families with young children need to thrive, we might begin by asking narrators to draw a map of their family members.

We can ask them to define concepts, such as: What is a community? What are communities you are a part of? What do you like about that community? In what ways does that community support your goals or needs? Who do you take care of? Who takes care of you?

Asking individuals to name or define concepts or specific resources opens the door to ask questions about who does what tasks in the narrator’s close family, extended family, and friends. Comparing these answers with the roles of institutions in the community can help us understand how labor is divided, and the form of help families routinely receive.

We also seek to use a “human-first” approach when framing our questions. Below we offer sample questions by topic, as an example of this.

• Personal life or opinions: What do you want people to take away from your story? How would you describe yourself, family, and life to others? What brings you joy? How long have you lived here? Walk me through a typical day: Do you take your kids to school? What does your day look like? What are your hopes/desires for yourself? Your family? If appropriate: What are your dreams now, and ones you have deferred? What’s your fondest memory of/with your children?
• Food: How do you go about buying food? Where’s the nearest grocery store? Does your grocery store offer what you need and want? How much do you spend on food and other bills each month?
• Work: Are you currently employed? What are your hours like? What’s the job like day to day? Do you have any schedule control or flexibility? Do you have control over your time or workload at work or how your work day is shaped? Do you get enough hours to be able to support your life? Are your hours consistent or erratic? How far do you have to travel to work? What’s the commute like? Is your transportation reliable? Does your employer offer health, dental, and vision insurance? Can you take time off when you need to (due to illness, children’s needs, emergencies)? Do you have vacation time?
• Housing/neighborhood: Is it adequate? How close can you afford to live to work or family? Is family close by? Can you let your kids out to play? How far are you comfortable letting them roam? Is your neighborhood walkable? Is it safe? If you need child care, is it available nearby? Is there anyone in the neighborhood or any family around who can watch your children?
• Health care: Do you have health insurance? Is it through work, Medicaid, or do you buy it yourself? Does it cover what you need? Can you afford the co-pays and deductible?
• Care: Do you provide care to anyone else? What care do you need?
• Time: Do you feel like you have enough time daily to do the things you want and need to do? Why or why not? What about leisure time? Do you have any?

• Ethical Storytelling, Stewarding the Stories of Others
• Voice of Witness, Ethical Storytelling Guidelines
• Deborah Swerdlow, “Ethical Storytelling: Communication without Exploitation,” Idealist.org
• Child Protection Manifesto, Telling Their Story: A Manifesto to Help Storytellers Keep Children Living in Crisis Safe
• Resource Media, Tipsheet: Ethical Storytelling
• Canva Design, “How to Tell a Story in an Ethical Way,” YouTube
• Julia Craven, “Why Some Journalists Are Centering Trauma-Informed Reporting,” Nieman Reports