Drawn journalism: new storytelling in high-tension areas

In many conflict or high-tension areas (wars, dictatorships, prisons, refugee camps), access to images is limited, dangerous, tightly controlled by authorities, or technically impossible. Yet the need to inform remains. Drawn journalism – whether in the form of graphic reportage, illustrated web documentaries or comics journalism – is increasingly emerging as an alternative way of telling these stories.
Drawing makes it possible to bear witness where cameras cannot enter, protect sources by not showing them directly, and bypass certain forms of censorship. It allows violence to be covered without sensationalising it. And drawing offers new forms of journalistic narration, transporting atmospheres, emotions and memories, including a certain degree of subjective perspective. It is a form that finds a completely new, young public - notably on social networks.
This panel will offer a concrete and visually rich discussion on how journalists use drawing as a tool for investigation and storytelling, and how this practice reshapes our relationship to images, truth and testimony. We will notably address:
> How to work from interviews, notes, and non-publishable photos to build a credible and rigorous graphic narrative
> How to handle the tension between drawn representation and journalistic accuracy
> Ethical issues (respect for witnesses, anonymization, reconstruction of scenes that were not filmed)
> Audience reception: why readers sometimes connect more with a drawn account than with raw video images of violence
> Possible formats: digital series, comics reportage, social media, books, webdocs.
Moderated by Carolin Ollivier.
Organised in association with ARTE.