Solidarity reporting may endanger marginalized people in settings where speaking truth to power often prompts reprisal. At the same time, solidarity reporting can also help protect marginalized people who speak on the record to journalists. Here’s how:
- Solidarity news values are often aligned with the nation’s Constitution and other founding legal documents. For example, a value of basic dignity is found in many countries’ constitutions. “Inherent dignity” is also in the first sentence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, ratified in 1948). Instead of framing stories by antagonizing political factions, solidarity stories focus on a universal right to basic dignity.
- Solidarity stories move beyond an isolated individual’s emotional turmoil. There’s both power and safety in truthful reporting that provides evidence that an issue is affecting multiple people. Reporting that isolates a single individual – often for the purposes of evoking personal empathy – is risky, because that individual can easily become a target for reprisal. Furthermore, one person may be dismissed as a minor anomaly, while evidence of multiple people facing the same struggle indicates there is a larger issue that needs to be addressed.
- Unlike journalists who “charm and betray,” journalists reporting in solidarity “show up and stay” even after a story runs. Journalists around the world engage in a trio of practices for sourcing in solidarity, all of which are oriented around a principle of respecting people’s basic dignity:
-
- Going there: Journalists physically go to places where marginalized people are struggling in conditions that deny their basic dignity. Whenever possible, stories are not reported based solely on social media posts, press releases, or agency reports. Journalists aim to see for themselves what is happening.
- Being there: Journalists spend time with the people who are facing (and fighting) social injustice. Instead of immediately requesting interviews and recording videos, journalists start by observing, introducing themselves, and interacting with people on the scene before taking out a recording device.
- Going back: Despite the fact that journalists are notoriously pressed for time, journalists across multiple countries have shared that they routinely return after a story runs to spend more time with people whose struggles continue. Instead of a “one-and-done” approach, solidarity reporting is an ongoing commitment and conversation. Respecting people’s dignity in practice means that journalists do not abandon vulnerable sources once the story runs. If sources do face reprisal, journalists show up to try to help. In some cases, sources have reciprocated by showing up for journalists who also face attacks for truthful reporting.
These solidarity practices can help mitigate dangers for people whose basic dignity is already at stake under the status quo – though safety is never guaranteed.
This resource is based on the following scholarship:
Varma, A. (2024). Navigating the Dangers of Mainstream Visibility for Marginalized Communities Through an Ethic of Solidarity in Digital Journalism. In The Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies (pp. 368-376). Routledge.
Kaliyarakath, R. & Varma, A. (2025). “Press Freedom as a Collective Right to Dignity: Journalistic Resistance Against Repression Through Solidarity Reporting.” Accepted to the 108th Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Annual Conference. International Communication Division. San Francisco, CA.
Varma, A. (In production, available in 2026). Solidarity in Journalism: How Ethical Reporting Fights for Social Justice. Columbia University Press.