Solidarity reporting is dangerous in many parts of the world where journalists and media practitioners face safety repercussions for standing against conditions that endanger marginalized communities’ lives at the level of basic dignity.
Dangerous Solidarity is an internationally engaged research project focused on what solidarity for social justice means in journalism and media worldwide, and why solidarity is often dangerous for people practicing it. The purpose of this project is to develop practical ways to address these dangers when safety is understood as a matter of basic dignity. We conduct peer-reviewed research, translate research findings into public-facing resources, and share supportive networks for people engaged in solidarity media around the world.
This project is part of the Solidarity Journalism Initiative, which defines solidarity as “a commitment to social justice that translates into action, when social justice is defined as dignity for everyone in a society” (Varma, 2020, p. 1706). While the first phase of the Solidarity Journalism Initiative (2019-2025) was rooted in journalism in the United States, Dangerous Solidarity expands the scope of publicly-engaged research to include international contexts of solidarity in journalism and media by and for people in India, Nigeria, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, Iran, Afghanistan, Germany, Canada, and the United States. This list of countries is a starting point and will expand in the future.
The phrase “Dangerous Solidarity” points to the dueling tension within this work: on the one hand, people practicing solidarity through media for social justice around the world regularly face dangerous threats to their safety as a consequence of exercising freedom of expression to stand for basic dignity. On the other hand, people practicing solidarity for social justice are regularly accused of being dangerous to society due to disrupting the “harmony” of the status quo by seeking change.
Despite this ongoing tension, journalists and media-makers continue to find ways to persist in practicing an ethical principle of universal human dignity. The research-based resources below are designed to help media and journalism practitioners, educators, and students learn to recognize, represent, and resist social injustice that denies the truth of our shared humanity.
