Getting creative to fund and engage audiences on under-reported stories
Sean Gallagher, a British photographer who’s been based in China since 2006, has a policy that he works on one larger story every year, usually about climate change and biodiversity loss, the subjects that drive his passion as a photographer. Getting funding for that work and finding an audience for it isn’t always easy. The independence of being a freelance photographer can be liberating, but the type of reporting Gallagher does is time and resource intensive, often taking him to remote areas for weeks at a time. By partnering with educational, journalism, and issue-focused institutions, Gallagher has found a way to report on the topics he cares about and get them out to a broad audience.
“I have a list of stories that I want to get done over the next few years,” he says.
“For example, the story that I did early last year — Tuvalu — it’s a tiny Pacific island nation that’s being swamped by rising sea levels and high tides. I was there for three weeks. That was an interesting project because I couldn’t get any funding for that… I tried to find funding; I approached publications. They didn’t want to pay for the logistical costs of getting there, which were significant. I applied for a couple of grants…didn’t get those. I just really wanted to work on the story. I put aside money and decided to just go. After being there maybe a week I started to send pictures to editors…they became excited about that and sent a reporter. They actually did give me an assignment while I was there and I managed to sell the images to a couple of different publications. I was able to cover my costs of going out there, eventually, but it was a real challenge.”
He says that each story has its own difficulties. Something that worked for that Tuvalu story, for instance, might not work for the next. “You’ve got to approach each project on its own,” Gallagher says, “You’ve got to be really flexible in how you’re going to make your project happen. Don’t be afraid of getting rejected. Be open to other ways of how you’re going to get a project funded.”
Gallagher’s work appears in publications around the world, and his long-term partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting has offered a way for him to both fund his larger stories and to directly engage the public with the issues he covers beyond the printed or digital page. Gallagher says he still does some assignment work, but “it’s become less and less.”
“It’s just a symptom of all the changes [in the industry] that have been taking place… I decided I really wanted to focus on my own work and my own projects. They just mean a lot more to me… I wanted to find a different way to fund [stories] and get that work made, rather than rely on editorial assignments.”
Gallagher saw opportunities to get the Tuvalu story out to the public beyond just getting published by a few news publications. “I made a limited-edition magazine that I sold through my social media channels,” he said. This helped recoup story production costs and also helped his audience engage with the story in a new way. “I’ve done a couple [magazines] before, but this one was definitely the most successful.” He’s careful to say that this success might not be repeatable for every story. “There’s no formula…you’ve got to stay adaptable.” Gallagher says that every story he works on requires both a different journalistic and funding approach, but he always stays focused on his end goal of working on stories he cares about and making sure those stories get out to the public. Gallagher will be trying the same approach with work made earlier this year in Cambodia with support of the Pulitzer Center.
“It’s difficult to put a number on the impact that you want to have,” Gallagher says, reflecting on how many people his stories reach.
“It’s difficult to say, ‘I want to change X number of minds on this issue or make a certain group of people think differently about an issue…I just think about making good work on issues that I’m interested in and then trying to get that work in publications that have a big audience. At the end of the day, if that’s happening, I have a small part in adding to the rising media dialogue about global environmental issues.”
Over the last decade, Sean Gallagher has worked closely with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. It’s an organization focused on reporting stories that aren’t getting much attention elsewhere by providing resources to journalists who wouldn’t otherwise have the resources to carry out such reporting. In order to get a grant with the organization, a journalist must already have an agreement in place with a news organization to publish the reporting, according to Fareed Moustoufi, Senior Education Manager at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. “We’re not trying to interrupt the normal editorial process,” he said. “[We] support the editorial process that often gets interrupted by lack of funds.” In addition to publishing the story, the Pulitzer Center is also focused on developing educational programs based on the reporting. “We have an education outreach program,” Moustoufi says, “to make sure the stories are reaching the largest public possible. We’re facilitating programs that are not only informing the public, but also supporting public engagement with the story.”
Hannah Berk, Education Manager at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, says that the primary audience for the Pulitzer Center’s educational outreach is the United States, though they have held special workshops in other parts of the world and through Skype. Berk and Moustoufi primarily work on engagement in kindergarten through high school settings, and another team works directly with higher education institutions, including community colleges and historically black colleges and universities. Berk says the Pulitzer Center has facilitated school tours around the US, university outreach, and digital programs with Gallagher. As a multiple grantee, Gallagher’s work has been used to create a number of lesson plans around pollution and health, species loss, and the exotic pet trade. These lesson plans, and hundreds of other lessons, are available for free through the Pulitzer Center website for anyone that wants them. “We’ve seen engagement from all 50 states,” Moustoufi says.
Berk also says that the Pulitzer Center’s educational efforts offer an opportunity to increase students’ media literacy. “[In the classes] we are talking about not only the issue,” Berk says, “but also the reporting process. [The students learn] what goes into responsibly and ethically reporting a story.” Moustoufi cites the changing news media landscape as a particular reason for focusing on how reporting happens. Moustoufi said:
“Studies show increasing engagement in 18–29-year-olds getting news through social media and responding to news coming through a platform that includes personal information and which responds to clicks [algorithmically deciding what to show a user.] There’s also research showing a decrease in engagement with the news and increasing distrust in the news. As we see young people engage with underreported stories [through the Pulitzer Center’s efforts], they’re interested, they’re engaged, they’re curious…They know that there are stories they might not be seeing and [we show them] how to find them.”
Moustofi says that this engagement with students through journalism can help build news habits that will foster a continued interest in global issues.
“These resources help make connections between what they’re learning and what’s happening right now. They also [learn] that there are stories that they are not seeing and that might interest them and learn how to find them…They’re [growing up] in a different time than I did and the way that they’re getting information is a lot different. They’re having to navigate [questions like] how do I seek out information about what’s happening in the world? How do I know what to trust? What we’re trying to do is make sure they’re getting access to stories they wouldn’t otherwise get access to. They’re getting answers about how news is made by people who report for many different publications. In doing that, we’re trying not only to build their critical thinking skills and their communication skills. We’re hoping that we’re also cultivating an interest in the world and helping students access the world responsibly by critically looking at news, but also actively looking at news.”
Berk adds that by guiding students’ interest, these educational outreach efforts can increase future engagement with the subject.
“We bring in journalists working on subjects that are connected to what students are already studying. Anecdotally, we see the more students learn about a subject, the more interested they are in a subject. Since we’re focusing on underreported stories, the focus is on helping students find things that they maybe weren’t interested in, but hopefully will be after that first engagement.”
Gallagher has also focused on telling stories through social media, a place where many people, especially younger generations, get the majority of their news. He started an Instagram feed called Everyday Extinction as a way to get the next generation interested in these issues.
“I started that in the end of 2016. Obviously I’d been inspired by Everyday Climate Change that James Whitlow Delano started. I thought the global biodiversity crisis was a story that wasn’t being told. I could bring together all the inspiring photographers and scientists that I’ve come across. I approached Everyday Everywhere [about collaboration]… Now we’ve got a network of 40 photojournalists and scientists contributing to the feed.”
Growth in the popularity of the Instagram feed has turned into other opportunities for engagement in the real world.
“We started doing some educational outreach in the end of 2018 and started working with the London Zoo. [We’re] hopefully going to expand that to workshops that deal more with the public. It’s about creating a community of like-minded people and using Instagram and Facebook to have a place for that community to share their work.”
The audience for Everyday Extinction is quite broad. Gallagher says that the wide network of contributors has allowed them to reach a global audience. “By sharing followers and our audience,” Gallagher says, “you’re expanding the reach.” And the nature of social media allows for scientists and journalists to speak directly with the audience. “You see a lot of dialogue on a lot of the images.”
For Gallagher, all of these education and outreach efforts are an important way to draw parallels between viewers’ lives and the global issues he covers. “My typical presentation [as part of the educational outreach with the Pulitzer Center] is very photo led,” Gallagher says.
“It’s taking people through my stories and talking about both the importance of those stories and why they matter. When I go to a school in Chicago and I show them pictures about rising sea levels in Jakarta, the challenge is trying to get those students to care about why it matters to their life in the US… It’s really worthwhile to get young learners to think about their community and what’s happening, but then connect that to what’s happening in other communities. I will dig out some images that show people of similar age [to the students listening to the presentation]. That’s a really good way to get them to think about what’s happening to other people their age around the world….It’s really rewarding at the end of the day, as well. When you see young learners get excited about the stories you’ve shown them, and they come to you after class and want to talk about the stories…it’s really interesting.”
Keep up with Sean Gallagher’s work on his website and Instagram page.
You can also follow Everyday Extinction and Everyday Climate Change on Instagram. And connect with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting on their website and Instagram page.
