From Furious to Curious: How to Do 'Good Conflict' Stories

The general public and journalists alike are exhausted and unsettled by intense political conflict. What if there were another way to cover it?

Typically journalists zoom in on division, scare quotes and binaries. But a "good conflict" approach emphasizes other approaches, digging into the understory of a conflict to help people understand the values, hopes, complexity and even potential solutions underneath.

Good Conflict founders Amanda Ripley and Hélène Biandudi Hofer joined SJN for a training designed to help journalists cover politics, conflict and civic life differently — constructively — so that our reporting can help bridge divides. Using their own original 'good conflict' reporting, they show how we might build understanding and off-ramps around political conflict.