Kia ora from Jess and Marianne,
We are thrilled to be introducing two new members of The Workshop team. As you’ll see below, Mark and Carolyn bring an impressive set of research, training, organisational and communication skills to our work and are already helping us do more of the work you’ve told us is most useful to you. Most importantly, they both share our belief that we can talk about important and complex social and environmental issues in ways that build support for the changes that will make the biggest contribution to a better future for Aotearoa.
If you get an email from Carolyn about a training workshop, or a request from Mark to be interviewed for one of our research projects, these are the excellent people at the other end of the email or phone. We’re very happy to have them join us and hope you get to meet them soon.
Mark Stewart, Researcher, The Workshop
Mark Stewart, Researcher
Mark comes to The Workshop from academia, where he has worked for the past 10 years in three different countries as an Assistant Professor and Senior Lecturer in Media & Communications. Mark has a deep interest in the ways that the media can be used to communicate ideas and information, both for good and for ill, and is bringing those experiences to bear on his role as a Researcher with The Workshop. Mark has published work in Television Studies and Fan & Audience Studies, and spends most of his free time buried in popular culture of all sorts!
Carolyn Blackwell, Research Communications and Training Assistant, The Workshop
Carolyn Blackwell - Research, Communications & Training Assistant
Carolyn has worked in central and local government, in volunteer roles for community organisations and as a free-lance photographer, designer and artist. Most recently, she worked in the director's office of the Waitangi Tribunal as a Senior Business Advisor. Carolyn enjoys working in spaces where she can use her creative, analytical and organisation skills, and workplaces committed to increasing equity for all New Zealanders. She has a background in visual arts and a BSC. in Psychology. Carolyn is interested in social psychology, how people connect, communicate and organise themselves. When she’s not with The Workshop Carolyn is most often found with her two children or up in the air practicing circus aerials.
The Workshop in the Media this Month
Lifting our gaze to changing digital media systems not just ourselves
In this article for The Spinoff Co-Director Marianne Elliott discusses how she uses her smart phone as a tool to benefit her life - at work and at home. Having worked on The Workshop’s Digital Democracy research, Marianne is aware of the wider implications of digital media, and the ways in which targeted content can affect individuals and communities. She keeps this awareness at hand when she uses her phone but cautions us from a one-size-fits all individual response to how we deal with this.
“I think the solution to the ways in which those apps are behaving unethically has to happen at a higher, more systematic level than individuals using them. I think we’re going to need better regulation at a governmental level.”
Marianne Elliot (Image: File/Alice Webb-Liddall)
Notes from the Narrative Movement
We need to Talk About How we Talk About System Change
At The Workshop we research ways to talk about complex social and environmental issues that help lift people’s gaze to the structural and system level, and build support for the changes that will make the biggest difference - often called ‘systems change’.
But talking about systems change in a way that makes things clearer and deepens public thinking isn’t easy, as Nat Kendall-Taylor & Bill Pitkin from Frameworks Institute discuss in this article. As they put it, “if we are going to channel all this talk into actually changing systems, we’ve got to make sure that we are talking about systems in the right way”.
We Need to Talk About How we Talk About System Change
Systems Change Work at The Workshop
The Workshop’s Kairangahau Jordan Green is currently working in collaboration with our partners, Tokona Te Raki and The Southern Initiative, to produce recommendations on how we could talk about systems change in Aotearoa New Zealand. This work is possible thanks to our Peter McKenzie funding. Keep an eye out for more updates over the next few months.
From our Board
Economist and The Workshop Board Member Shambeel Eaqub looks at New Zealand’s post-Covid economic recovery with illustrator Toby Morris in his latest article for The Spinoff.
You can get more guidance on narratives on topics from transport, climate change and justice reform in our freely available message guides on our website.
Get in touch
Get in touch with with lucia@theworkshop.org.nz if you are interested in training for your team, with sharon@theworkshop.org.nz if you are interested in research on narrative strategies for your area of work, or operations@theworkshop.org.nz if you would like to talk to us about how we can help you with specific advice.