PORTFOLIO

With growing distrust in science and established institutions, along with ever advancing technologies, effective science communication with engaging content to foster public dialogue at large becomes crucial. This project had the goal to expand skills and mindsets for established and emerging talents in (science) journalism and multimedia storytelling by leveraging the expertise of the San Francisco Bay Area. Through two summer school-type programs in 2023 and 2024, the program focused on enabling multimedia productions as a contribution to the modernisation of science journalism and science communication at large, while immersing participants in the newest technologies such as AI and the rapidly emerging practices of applying them.

As a program, it included (a) a fellowship enabling science journalists and communicators to travel to San Francisco for 2 weeks to up to three months, (b) a science communication bootcamp, exploring different mediums, formats and applications that can enhance the impact of communication, (c) public events and (d) exposing fellows to the way Silicon Valley actors are leveraging new emerging technologies, as well as the collaborative mindset behind it. This also included peer exchange with local news outlets’ newsrooms and journalists.
The two editions of the program in summer 2023 and 2024 brought together 23 participants for a 2-week intensive program focused on honing multimedia storytelling skills and developing impactful projects on pressing issues. Participants reported gaining new skills, fresh ideas, and the confidence to make a meaningful impact in their fields. In terms of multimedia production, Swissnex has collected outcomes from the 2023 projects and will continue to track the progress of 2024 participants. Given the limited time frame of the two-week stay of most participants, they were unable to complete full productions on-site. Therefore, Swissnex strongly encouraged them to apply for GRS’s Innovation fund for multimedia science journalism to further develop their projects.
With the growing capabilities of (generative) AI during the bootcamp, exposure to this technology triggered a lot of reflections among the journalists on how to modernize Swiss journalism and a growing sense of responsibility to contribute to this transformation as change agents, supported by the other program alumni community. Further, the program established a strong track record of providing essential value to newsrooms, which is the reason we aim to continue to offer this program with partial financing from participants’ institutions in 2025.