It shouldn’t be this way.
About asset framing
With deep gratitude to Trabian Shorters, Founder and CEO BMe Community, for developing the Asset-Framing® cognitive framework.
You can shape how a story is told.
Set media interview and storytelling parameters in advance
Prepare both interviewer and interviewee with the goal of ensuring your interviewee has agency in telling their story, their way.This includes:
- Laying out what a reporter can and can’t ask based on what is relevant and what the interviewee wants to discuss.
- Ensuring the interview takes place on the interviewee’s terms (i.e., location, setting, time).
- Preparing the interviewee to be comfortable with telling a reporter what they don’t want to discuss.
Provide reporters with responsible reporting guidelines
Guidelines often include: how interviewees should be referenced and referred to; word and language choice requests; context about issues and potential challenges faced by interviewees; tips on trauma-informed interviewing; interviewee privacy considerations; and suggestions for avoiding comparisons to “normal” or “average”, understanding that personal challenges are very often a result of systemic failings.
Ask for edits, pre- and post-publication
During the interview, gently correct the reporter if they don’t follow asset-framing guidelines. After the interview follow up with some asset-framing based reminders. If the story runs with deficit framing, follow up and ask for changes. Sometimes, editors make changes the reporter doesn’t see and often headlines are written by others without information on asset framing.By furthering asset framing storytelling...
Download Resources
Guide to Interviewing Holocaust-Survivors from the Museum of Jewish Heritage
Responsible Reporting Guide for Community Access
