North-South Conference: Building Partnerships for Sustainable Development

Simulation Schedule | Teleconference Schedule | Rules
Participant Resources | Scenario: North-South Conference

Journalists

Your first task is to organise yourselves as a team. This must be done before the simulation starts. Choose a name for your publication and decide on a publishing schedule. You should plan on publishing News Bulletins every other day, as a rule. As soon as you have chosen a name, send a message to the simulation moderator indicating what your publication's new name is. The moderator will then change your group's name in Moodle.

Decide how you want to organise your team; your team's tasks include activities such as news reporting, editorial writing, doing background research, editing articles and commentaries, interviewing representatives of the various Non-Governmental Organisations, sifting through the existing documents and communications for newsworthy stories. You decide what your editorial policy will be and you run your organisation as you see fit. Remember, though, that the more professional your publication is, the more seriously you will be taken by your readers.

Quite often, participants who are not able to attend teleconferences come to rely on the media to provide accurate summaries of day-to-day progress (or the lack thereof).

To begin with, prepare a confidential statement outlining your publication's editorial stance, your goals as journalists, and the approaches you intend to use to achieve your goals. Send a copy of this document to the simulation moderator, but not to the other teams.

Your second document, the equivalent of the NGO teams' Vision Statements, is the first (inaugural) edition of your publication. In it, you announce the launching of your publication and introduce it to the other participants in the simulation. Consider including some of the following kinds of "market-relevant" information about your organisation: size, type of publication, political or editorial orientation (bias), circulation (number of readers). Consider "real world" models such as "The European," "Le Monde," CNN's "Impact," MSNBC's "Dateline" or the BBC's "Broadcasting House." Make your profile as realistic as possible – this will add to your publication's credibility.

Publish your first issue by 6:00 p.m. on the day before the start of the negotiations.

As soon as the NGOs have published their Mission Statements (and you have read them), begin contacting the various groups to ask questions about their plans. Based on what they have said in their Mission Statements, try to learn more about which region(s) they are most interested in working in, what they hope to accomplish there, who their potential partners are, and where they think their funding will come from. Make sure your questions are tailored to each organisation you contact. Avoid using a "shotgun" approach and hoping that someone might answer.

Once you have launched your publication, your next issue (you may combine this with your inaugural issue) should be based on the regional and country information (see the Resources for Participants page) and the basic socio-economic and education-related data contained in them. In this way, you can help the NGOs see where the need is greatest. Your second issue might be based on the NGOs' Mission Statements. If organisations are late in submitting their Mission Statements, you may want to mention this in your publication, but bear in mind that your success as journalists depends to a great extent on your ability to establish and maintain good relationships with your readers (i.e. the NGOs) and with your information sources (contacts within the NGOs).

During the simulation, you will have the following tasks to accomplish:

1. Decide what your publication schedule will be – and keep to it! Let your readers know when they can expect to find a new edition of your publication in Moodle (or on your website) and make absolutely certain you meet that deadline.
2. Each edition of your periodical should contain one or both of the following types of articles: (a) reporting on events and developments and (b) editorial commentary on these or other items and issues.
3. Regularly contact each NGO to obtain information and opinion on the current state of the Conference's work.
4. If events warrant, you may want to publish a special issue covering a breaking news story. You may also publish issues devoted to a particular development-related theme or a particular aspect of the Conference's work.
5. Invite your readers to contribute "op ed" pieces (views which may disagree with positions your publication has taken) and "letters to the editor."

Remember to make a clear distinction between reporting news ("facts," events or others' opinions) and offering editorial commentary (presenting your organisation's own opinion or point of view). While it may not be fashionable, this is good journalistic practice.

In addition to writing messages to the other groups, you are encouraged to organise press conferences (use the Press Conference in Moodle) and to publish background information or documents from reliable external sources (e.g. those listed on the Resource Links page) that are related to the issues that are the focus of the simulation.

Do not "invent" facts or events. Remember that such things tend to reflect badly on your organisation.

Please respect the IDEELS tradition of using pseudonyms or initials to identify individuals (rather than real names).

From time to time you may receive "leaked" information (sent to you by others involved in the negotiations, for example) that you would not normally have access to; you may also receive "wire service reports" or "tips" that give you leads to follow up. Again, the credibility of your periodical depends largely on the professional quality of your reporting and commentary.