Lessons from our Journalist Fellows on ethics, engagement, innovation and trust

On Wednesday, we gathered at the Frontline Club in London to say farewell to our 12 Journalist Fellows. They’ve spent the past months in Oxford, learning from each others’ experiences and working on projects related to challenges facing their newsrooms or the industry as a whole. 

Our Summer Showcase featured presentations on each of those projects, as well as panel discussions on some of the issues they discussed. From fact-checking and climate journalism to audience engagement and journalistic standards, they helped us reflect on the challenges facing our profession and how it can be reshaped to meet our audiences’ needs. Here’s a summary of the evening. Stay tuned for their projects, which will be published on our website in the next few months. 

1. On journalistic standards at a time of war. Ukrainian journalist Roman Sukhan is an editor and host at public broadcaster Suspilne. During his time with us, he examined journalistic standards at a time of war. This is not an abstract topic for Roman. He’s reported extensively on the full-scale invasion from February 2022 and has had to cut his fellowship short after his brother was severely injured in a Russian attack. 

Roman asked over 100 Ukrainian journalists and 20 colleagues from other countries whether standards should stay the same during war. The answers from Ukrainians surprised him: “Yes, standards are important, but safety comes first. Safety of civilians – because a second rocket can hit the exact same place we just showed on TV. Safety of soldiers – because they are our relatives, friends, and colleagues who never planned to hold a gun.”

• A quote from Roman. ”My research proves that Ukrainian journalists did not become tools of propaganda. When asked if we should do anti-corruption investigations during the war, we say yes. Should we report on human rights violations regardless of who commits them? Definitely yes. Should we broadcast the direct words of the aggressor? No, not without strong context, because we cannot be a megaphone for the enemy. Is it right to delay information to save people’s lives? Yes.”

2. On demystifying open source intelligence. “Many journalists still imagine nerds when they think of OSINT,” German reporter Lea Weinmann said about the kind of open source intelligence techniques many reporters use now. “We need to overcome this jargon and see it for what it is: a part of our job. OSINT is one of our most powerful ways to seek truth. We use publicly available information to verify and to uncover what powerful actors want to hide.”

Lea’s project with us has focused precisely on how to integrate these techniques more efficiently into the work of newsrooms. “If you want to break award-winning stories, you need both – the generalists in every department and the deep specialists,” she said. “But awards are not what decide whether a newsroom survives. In a digital environment, you simply cannot stay relevant in journalism without basic OSINT skills in the hands of all reporters, editors, and producers.”

• A quote from Lea: “Rather than throwing a bunch of tools at people, develop a basic, newsroom-wide understanding of what verification actually means. If these methods remain confined to a handful of digital heroes, the newsroom as a whole falls behind. We need digital literacy across the board. OSINT is no witchcraft. It is a mindset. If we want journalism to matter tomorrow, we have to build that mindset into our newsrooms today.”

3. On reporting on those guilty of despicable crimes. Norwegian journalist Håkon Høydal has spent his time with us examining how journalists should report on people society perceives as monsters: those who’ve been found guilty of serious crimes such as murder, rape or child abuses. “In a society built on competitive identity-building,” he said. “turning some people into monsters may benefit the media and your own psyche in the short run. But if our goal is truth, we fail.”

1. A quote from Håkon: “Is it our job as journalists to treat people like Benjamin humanely? My project argues that it is, and I offer tools that will equip you for this work. I’ve studied interrogation methods, narrative therapy, and interviewed journalists and several abusers to learn what works. The result is HUMANE, a framework for journalists reporting on offenders and events that might trigger monster-making. It asks you to Hold the purpose, Understand your reactions, Maintain facts, Acknowledge those affected, Nurture rapport and Edit with awareness.”

4. On how to foster editorial collaboration. Danish journalist Louise Reseke argued that newsrooms should collaborate even more, and not just on investigative stories but on topics such as migration, technology and climate change. Based on her work with us in Oxford, she thinks three steps are essential: building a strong network of peers across countries and/or newsrooms, creating a win-win situation in which everyone has the right incentives to work, and designating someone whose job is to coordinate the effort. 

• A quote from Louise. “Most media companies say they support collaboration. But to benefit, they need to pave the way: enable networks, journalistic incentives and coordination. Collaborations should not be reserved for investigative teams but part of the toolbox in any newsroom.”

5. On how to cover the energy transition. Argentinian journalist Fermín Koop has spent his time with us speaking to 21 journalists from 12 countries to learn how newsrooms were reporting on the transition away from fossil fuels in Latin America. What he found is that this story is being told poorly, or not at all. “Most newsrooms have no dedicated energy reporters,” he said. “Coverage jumps from one announcement to the next. The same voices (government officials and company representatives) dominate stories.”

Can journalists change this? Fermín thinks so, and has designed a practical framework with five questions any journalist should ask before reporting on an energy story: “Who benefits and who bears the cost? Whose transition are we talking about? Whose voices are missing? Where does the story begin and end? And am I covering an event, or a process? Because the real story is not the inauguration ceremony. It's what happens to communities in the years that follow.”

• A quote from Fermín: “Latin America generates over 65% of its electricity from renewables – well above the global average. It supplies much of the lithium, copper and minerals that make electric vehicles and solar panels possible elsewhere. And yet, on the ground, communities are being displaced, sacred land is being crossed, and water is being drawn from sources that people have no say over.”

6. On reporting on extreme weather events. Australian journalist Jess Davis works for Australian public broadcaster ABC. Over the past two years she's been a part of launching the ABC's dedicated climate team, helping shape coverage of climate change as a core public interest beat. During her time with us, Jess has worked to explain how journalists convey the causes of extreme weather in an era of climate change, what happens in the critical hours and days after a disaster, and how newsrooms can equip journalists to be better prepared.

• A quote from Jess: “Many journalists lack the tools or confidence to explain this clearly, especially under deadline pressure or live on air. And that gap matters. When extreme weather strikes, audiences increasingly want to know what role climate change played. But there are other questions: Who is at fault? Could we have prepared better? If those questions aren’t answered quickly and clearly, something else fills the space: misleading narratives or misinformation, that offers simpler answers, clearer culprits, and more compelling stories of blame.”

7. On engaging news audiences. Singaporean journalist Lim Yan Liang has spent his time in Oxford looking at audience engagement ideas for the Strait Times, a newspaper founded in 1845 by an Armenian merchant who imported a printing press from England. Yan Liang listed four ideas to strengthen his newsroom’s relationship with audiences: putting reading first, being good neighbours by listening deeply, being transparent about sources and funding, and striving for meaning over empty metrics. 

• A quote from Yan Liang. “Audiences know if you’re not being straight with them, and it’s never been easier to swipe away. This means becoming at ease with explaining our journalistic choices – from headlines to quotes to how we structure stories – and owning up to mistakes. Today’s readers want to have their say, and not just through letters to the editor. An ombudsman or public editor is not a new concept, but neither has it been more timely.”

8. On the ethics of side-hustles. Should a journalist appear in an ad to raise skin cancer awareness? Should they be paid for presenting an awards ceremony? Should they appear at events hosted by private companies? These are some of the questions Israeli journalist Roy Schwartz explores in his project. 

Roy has reviewed dozens of ethics codes from news organisations and found some of them very vague when responding to those questions. Throughout the interviews he’s conducted, it became clear: done correctly, and with full transparency, journalists can use their skills to generate additional income. “The question isn’t just what we do,” he said. “It’s how.”

• A quote from Roy: “This is not only about us. It’s also about the outlets that employ us, support us, and benefit from our work. There are quite a few ideas [in my project]: from defining clear categories of risks, to setting an explicit framework for taking another job.”

9. On news creators and media literacy. Over the past decade, Finnish journalist Salla-Rosa Gröhn has led young content creation, working with and like news creators at Yle Kioski, an outlet focused on young audiences. 

This deep experience led her to a shocking realisation: many independent creator journalists have demonstrated more responsibility in media literacy than traditional newsrooms. Many of them, she said, are open about their values, disclose their funding, show transparently how they gather information, explain why they do what they do, and publish in formats that are accessible and clear.

• A quote from Salla-Rosa: “We live in a world where it's sometimes impossible to differentiate responsible journalistic actors on social media, where audiences do not recognize journalism from opinions, marketing, activism and AI-generated content. Audiences of all ages desperately need clear, accessible journalism in their daily lives, on platforms they are already using. My project will convince you that media literacy in 2026 is a shared responsibility.”

10. On the rise of fact-checking in Japan. Fact-checking exploded in Japan in 2025: during the Upper House election, the total number of fact-checking articles was six times higher than in the previous election in 2022. Why so late? Japanese journalist Hiroshi Asahina explained Japanese media have traditionally been extremely cautious about any reporting that may affect election results. Hisoshi interviewed journalists at major national newspapers and the public broadcaster NHK, and analysed the challenges they faced when conducting fact-checking during the election campaign.

• A quote from Hiroshi. “Many media outlets struggled with how to ensure impartiality while fact-checking politicians’ and candidates’ statements. This issue was particularly difficult for NHK. They checked candidates’ claims, but did not name the candidates in its articles. This was to avoid being seen as targeting specific candidates. However, this approach may weaken the role of fact-checking in holding politicians accountable.”

11. On fighting AI misinformation. Brazilian fact-checker Tai Nalon warned us all about the impact of AI-generated fraud and misinformation in every country’s public sphere. “This happened not only because generative AI changed the economics of deception,” she said, “but because systems that challenge harmful information have been weakened, defunded, and attacked. Many of them were built by fact-checkers.”

Tai pointed to projects from her colleagues at Chequeado, Full Fact, Maldita and Aos Fatos as examples of how to fight for a healthier news ecosystem. She also argued funders should spend more money sustaining these organisations as they strengthen democracy with their work. 

• A quote from Tai: “Each fact-check we publish is built from verification bricks: structured, reusable and multimodal units of verified information — claims, actors, sources, evidence, verdicts, and narrative patterns. Together, these bricks can become a provenance layer for journalism and epistemic safety: a way to make evidence, methods, and accountability traceable in an AI-mediated public sphere.”

12. On reporting on undercovered countries. Twelve years ago, German-Kurdish journalist Sham Jaff launched a newsletter dedicated to stories from Asia, Africa, and the Americas that rarely receive sustained attention in Western media. She’s now reaching over 40,000 people interested in stories far removed from their own lives. 

When she asked them why they read her work, many described curiosity as a motivation. “Others said they were tired of seeing the same countries dominate international coverage,” she said. “Some spoke about wanting a more accurate picture of the world.” During her time with us, Sham has tried to understand why some people actively seek out stories that expand their understanding of places, people, and realities beyond their immediate experience.

• A quote from Sham: “Countries become visible when they produce something powerful countries need, when they become strategically important, or when disaster strikes. The result is a distorted picture of how billions of people live.”