The Guardian - open journalism campaign

 

This is priceless! The Guardian newspaper has launched a new campaign for their "open journalism" stance. Creatively they did so by imagining how they would report on the "three little pigs" story if it happened today... The story unfolds over headlines, reader's interventions, arrests of the three little pigs, a courtroom artist drawing on a tablet, riots complete with smartphones to shoot the action (the behind the scenes photos are just amazing one simply has to see them).

What's so interesting is that the story is retold from as many angles as possible with no clear "victim" or "hero" - ex: The whole as starts with the headline "big bad wolf boiled alive" but then goes on to open debate "Is killing an intruder ever justified?" then we discover that "big bad wolf had asthma" but we also see a digital simulation of the "huff and puff" threat which would not have blow straw and wood house down, there's of course a vigil next to a graffiti wall for the big bad wolf (come on, every event has one of those!), then the sensational trial which concludes with a guilty verdict for the three pigs.

But wait! It turns out big bad wolf came to the pigs' house to confiscate it because they were late on their mortgage payments, and so a - with social media contributions - people go back to sympathize with the three pigs. After all, there were so many similar situations that they actions are now justified (I particularly love the manifestation-riot slogans "the banks made the pigs do it" and "wake up and smell the bacon"). The riot in themselves spart a debate to modify the current laws... "The full picture" indeed as their line says!
Now, as a side note, wouldn't it be wonderful if news sources in Lebanon stopped this top-down approach and started open journalism on their own? But this also requires citizens involved enough - and with courage enough - to put their own side of things (not anonymously!).