“Investigation Class”: Group journalistic investigation

Activity Overview

“Investigation Class” is a game that allows young participants to understand how information is produced.

Specifically, it is an immersive journalistic investigation in which young participants take on the role of journalists.

Objectives:

• Understand the basics of journalism and the rigor that professional journalists must follow to ensure the validity of the information they deliver.
• Become aware of the importance of critical thinking when confronted with information.
• Be able to verify sources more easily after experiencing part of a journalist’s work in this field.

Over time, young participants get used to this approach, which quickly becomes a reflex. This helps them avoid falling into the trap of disinformation.

In addition to fostering teamwork, note-taking, synthesis skills, and oral presentation, this exercise emphasizes the sorting work that professional journalists perform before publishing information.

Activity Process

This immersive journalistic investigation takes place in several steps:

1. For two hours, participants collect testimonies and documents.
2. These testimonies and documents were previously written or recorded by the trainer and “accomplices” (team members, teachers, association members, etc.).
3. The testimonies and documents all relate to the same event (e.g., the mysterious disappearance of two lion cubs in a zoo) but come from different sources (e.g., the zoo manager, the café owner across from the zoo, etc.).
4. Participants cross-check these documents to try to understand the sequence of events, then interview witnesses (in person or via email).
5. They then produce a live report in which each participant plays the journalist while another films, using a smartphone or camera.
6. The videos can then be shared on the platform of your choice to raise awareness among other young people (and allow participants to evaluate the quality of their work!).