Plenary 1:  From Crisis to Possibility: Reimagining Journalism for Social Justice

This session will examine how journalism can move beyond its crisis-driven lens to highlight solutions, innovations, and resilience-building as pathways to social justice. By shifting the focus from problems alone to the ways communities and institutions respond, this approach to journalism helps rebuild trust in media, nurtures civic hope, and empowers citizens as agents of change rather than passive witnesses of crisis. The session will feature case studies from editors experimenting with justice-oriented reporting, insights from NGOs and advocacy groups using media to advance equity and inclusion, and reflections from scholars of peace and civic journalism who connect hope-centered storytelling to broader democratic movements. Through interactive dialogue, participants will explore how journalism can coexist with watchdog reporting while reclaiming media as a force for hope, ethical storytelling, and inclusive, justice-centered narratives.

Speakers

Plenary 2: No Justice without Inclusion: Media Activism and the Rights of Marginalised Communities

At a time when the right to live with dignity is threatened by widening inequalities and the exploitation of people and resources, this plenary examines how media can serve as a moral compass for societies in turmoil. Moving beyond coverage of conflict and catastrophe, it explores how journalism and storytelling can expose systems of dispossession while amplifying acts of ethical courage and communal care. Grounded in moral imagination, the session envisions media as a space for collective conscience, where the fight for human rights becomes inseparable from the struggle to sustain life itself. In doing so, it reframes human rights not merely as legal claims but as shared responsibilities: to protect life, voice, and the fragile ecosystems that sustain both.

Speakers

Plenary 3: Art, Entertainment & Storytelling as Activism

This plenary session  will explore the potential—and the tensions—of films, theater, music, and popular culture as forces of activism. On the one hand, creative industries have shaped social consciousness, challenged stereotypes, and opened spaces for resistance and solidarity; on the other, they face criticism for commodifying struggles, reproducing stereotypes, or diluting radical voices. By drawing on examples from South Asia, the Global South, and diaspora communities, this session aims to examine how art and entertainment can influence public imagination around justice, inclusivity, and hope, while also engaging critically with the risks and contradictions of cultural production in a globalized media economy. Bringing together filmmakers, musicians, dramatists, digital storytellers, and media scholars, the plenary will showcase how storytelling becomes activism, debate its limitations, and identify pathways for integrating art and entertainment into broader struggles for social justice and civic transformation.

Speakers