Landing on the first page. Story Competition.
How to give space and fight for the stories that matter to us?
The conversation begins with the complexities of Australia Day, highlighting the history of colonisation and the ongoing fight for Indigenous rights. The dialogue then transitions to the topic of the global north and global south relationship, exploring the challenges of relating in a new way and the ongoing social injustices in Africa. Finally, the group chooses to explore the international ‘news hierarchy’; what stories do not make it to the first pages and/or following pages of international news, such as the temple inauguration in Ayodhya, India, and the African genocides in Sudan and Kongo.
Credits to Waldemar on Unsplash
In our first session this year, around 15 people from Africa, India, Australia, and Europe came together to deepen the conversation around Global South and Global North relationships and the role of media in it. This time, our meeting landed on ‘Australia Day’ or Invasion Day, as some prefer. We seem to have a special talent for choosing the dates for our Worldwork Journalism sessions as the previous session was on Jamhuri Day (Kenyan Independence Day).
Today’s topic, Who makes it into the international news? What are people interested in, and what not? Who makes it to the first pages?
The group chooses to focus on the hierarchy of international news; we share stories that did not make it to the first page of international news, such as the temple inauguration in Ayodhya, India, and African genocides and violations of human rights in Sudan and Kongo that are continuously neglected in global discourse.
After a long period of international focus, we also are reflecting on how Ukraine has lost the ‘privilege of the first page’ to the Israel / Palestina war zone. And how this loss of attention has direct consequences in terms of global engagement and support. Our conversation explores the pain of war, the challenges of exploitation, and the need for support and change.
So, who decides about these first pages? Is it the power of money? What happens to purpose-driven storytelling? Who can, how long afford to do it? The participants discuss the frustration of media coverage and the importance of sharing stories.
Is there space for all our stories? Shyness appears. Or is it despair? Resignation? Anger… How much do our stories matter and are people ready to listen?
And on the other side, how much are we all responsible for what we listen to and what we share and fight for to be heard?
Listen to some of the voices:
Throughout the session, my feelings evolved, stirred by a mix of curiosity, frustration, and a deep-seated desire for justice. Together, we explored the criteria that shape newsroom decisions, delving into the dynamics of Western media mediocrity in reporting stories that don’t come from the Western World. It was a journey of confronting uncomfortable truths and challenging the prevailing narratives that have perpetuated silence for far too long.
In the open dialogue and shared reflections, I discovered a sense of empowerment—a realization that my emotions are not isolated, but rather shared by others in the group. We collectively sought strategies to disrupt the patterns, amplify marginalized voices, and bring attention to the urgent issues surrounding global south.
This session was not just about media dynamics; it was a personal invitation for each of us to question, challenge, and contribute to reshaping the narrative landscape. My feelings now carry a renewed purpose—empowering me to question media narratives, advocating for a more inclusive global discourse, and actively participating in rectifying the media's role in shaping public perceptions of crises in Africa.
Isaac Mwenja, Kenya
Telling my story makes me feel like the victim like I’m being exploited for someone else’s gain.
Daisy, Kenya
Don’t Speak
My words are not important. Not as important as yours.
My story is not so painful. There is bigger pain in another one.
My news is not for the headlines. Only for the side columns.
But i don't need the whole world to listen. Just you is more than enough.
As I read my words again, filled with ‘I’ and ‘My’,
I say I don’t want to compete and yet that is what I do.
For my voice to be heard, I unheard someone else.
Kruti - India
Comment :
On the 22nd of January, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a Hindu temple that was built on the residues of a destroyed mosque in Ayodhya. The mosque was destroyed appr. 30 years ago, many people were killed and the demolition caused big tension in the country. Modi’s inauguration now has a symbolic character, the prime minister called it the start of a new era. This evokes a big discourse about India no longer being a secular nation and Modi had made it ‘all right’ to have killed people in the name of religion.
“It is like changing the constitution”.
The process leaves me with open and potent questions to be processed. Coming from a place, where currently most of the independent media are banned, blocked and marginalised by the state (Russia), it is common in the so-called liberal circles here to think that independent media, that serves their audience, IS THE solution to just and well-spread information. While the state, being the source of censorship and propaganda in its own interests, is evil. The group’s process where independent media follow the money (i.e. people’s primitive attention drives) creating inequality itself, made me connect to possibly the positive spirit behind the one who decides what to show to people, not just what they’d wanna see and pay for. The one who identifies those marginalised, unseen elements, brings our attention to them and invites ways to make a difference. Assumably, that’s a part of the modern journalists’ ethics, but not so much of a global media as a system.
What hit me was the notion that it is not nothing that someone’s war disappears from the front page and another war takes centre stage. Utter dispair? Powerlessness?
Saskia - Australia
Also the space of not-competing-for-attention brings energy in me. I initially dream of an image of us being children, asking for attention for the sake of attention (literally my 3-years old daughter), to be seen and heard, to prove that I matter. And in the space of competition, finding indirect ways to get that attention. Being the loudest, being the funniest, being in the most pain… Yet it might be not enough to say «We don’t have to compete» – but that starts bringing different images… Of us all as adults seeing around the campfire and just sharing stories, where there is enough space for all. Of us all as adults seeking solutions for the crisis we have, and for that sharing what we know with each other. Of us all as adults trying to weave together our common story and for that contributing our bits and pieces as parts of a bigger whole… Or countless other ways of knowing and sharing what is.
Vlad – Russia
Shouting from the rooftops - even now, as I write this, for some unknown reason the font was 7! Tiny! So I make it larger - shout louder! I hear you. Soft voices speaking, silent voices - overlooked. Who is responsible? Maybe I am among the dead. Who carries my story? My voice?
Speaking from silence - potent… a voice asks, Is there a listener? I am forgotten, overlooked by you. Do I have to scream from the rooftop? Is my story not interesting, painful enough for you? Not newsworthy enough?
Silence. Absence. Yet full. So much energy in the ‘overlooked’.
‘It's not a competition!’ But I have to make space to get heard! Or I can slam the door and let you know that you have lost me. Again. Or I leave silently and you will never know. But maybe one day, you will be affected by my story, because you are not immune from what happens to me in my part of the world. It will affect you. One day. Maybe in many ways, you can’t yet imagine.
So let’s compete!
Penny - Australia
Comment about Australia Day
Captain Phillip led the fleet north into Port Jackson, landing on 26 January 1788. He named it Sydney Cove, after Lord Sydney the British Home Secretary. This day also marks the beginning of a long and brutal colonisation of people and land.
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About 🌏 Worldwork
Worldwork is an application of Processwork also known as process-oriented psychology. As a psychological and conflict-resolution approach developed by Arnold Mindell in the 1970s, it's based on the principles of Jungian psychology, Taoism, and systems theory, and it is used in various settings, including therapy, organizational development, community building, and conflict resolution. At its core, Worldwork aims to explore and understand both individual and collective processes in order to address conflicts, promote personal growth, and transform tensions into co-creative energy in relationships within groups and communities. It focuses on bringing awareness to marginalised or ignored perspectives, as well as the deeper layers of consciousness within individuals and groups.
The initiators of this space
Stephanie Bachmair (founder B.ONFIRE) is a communication passionate, facilitator, leadership coach, and process work diplomat. She supports individuals, teams, and organizations to explore and craft their stories, tell them with charisma, relate to their audience, and increase their transformative power through dialogue.
Penny Watson (MACF) works as a coach, group facilitator and community development worker. She loves working with people in nature using process-orientated earth-based practices. She lives in Mparntwe, Alice Springs, and is deeply inspired by the people and lands of the Central Australian Desert.
If you want more
In case you have questions about Worldwork Journalism as a project or about joining the group, please write to info@b-onfire.com.
If you are interested in knowing more & experiencing process work, a Deep Democracy / facilitative leadership training is coming up soon: Me and We. Politics within and around us. 8th to 10th of March in Hamburg. More info here.
More Writing/Reading/Podcast … B.ONFIRE Insights&Conversations is a separate publication here on Substack
For professional updates on leadership, communication, and facilitation check our website www.b-onfire.com, and other social media channels: https://linktr.ee/b_onfire
 | A guest post by
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I’m very curious to know. Who are you to do these things? Who are you not to?
I want to explore listening and not listening. I welcome anyone who would like to join me…
I feel the threatening tone in what I wrote in the article above, ‘... But maybe one day, you will be affected by my story, because you are not immune from what happens to me in my part of the world’. I see an old woman waving her bony finger at those of us who turn away from the untold stories and storytellers still waiting to be heard. “Ignore me at your peril!” she cries.
So, yes, our world is more and more interconnected, and what happens in one place can have ramifications for people elsewhere, whether immediate shock waves or tiny ripples (that may gather strength over time and erupt far from their source). Sometimes we only see or guess at the connections when we look back. This happens across geography, bodies, genes and across time. (Thinking about colonisation, war and intergenerational trauma).
But there are more reasons to pay attention to other’s stories than just our self-interest.
And more reasons to listen than because we might be implicated in the story in some way, for example as beneficiaries of colonisation or war. (Often a reason for turning away, hiding in confusion, shame or denial. I want to say more about soon that in the Australian context).
Listening, deeply listening with my whole being to someone’s story– changes me. Cracks open my heart, my mind, and transforms my reference points. Through relationship I become more than…who I was. How can we not be affected by other people’s and communities’ stories of injustice, pain, struggle and inherently their resilience, and hopes and dreams and calls to action? Aren’t we all trying to figure this out? These ancient themes of conflict, power over, seeking justice and restitution, … themes that ricochet through our human experience…. continually lived out and repeated until... something changes.
And, then there is listening for no other reason than joining with another person, no matter how hard it is.
As I write, I think no matter what the reason, together in the telling and the listening we are growing new ways of relating, and that gives me hope.