This version of the Newspaper of Tomorrow exercise is adapted from the Visions+21 toolbox, a product co-created by Strategic Design Scenarios and the French Ministry for Ecological Transition and Solidarity other partners. The Visions+21 toolbox is available open source under the licence Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
The aim of the exercise is to turn fictive newspaper headlines based on future scenarios into a positive future vision for the city.
In preparation, the organising team develops fictive newspaper headlines based on realistic but “exaggerated” scenarios for the city’s development, for example, house prices continue to increase (if this is the trend), car use grows, floods continue to occur, etc (see examples below).
The fictive newspaper headlines are then used in a workshop with local stakeholders involved in developing the future vision, turning negative scenarios around and imagine what the city would look like when those challenges have been overcome.
Download this tool
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Newspaper of Tomorrow Visions+21(PDF, 481Ko)
Workshop method
Time needed: 2-3 hours
Participants: 20-50 maximum, divided into groups of 4-5.
Step 1: Select the challenges (ca 45 min)
Each group reads, discusses and selects the Newspaper headings that are most relevant/important to them. Participants add their own if something is missing.
Step 2: Exhibit all the selected challenges (ca 15 min)
Place all the challenges that the groups picked on a wall, to have a common look at the ones picked by each group. Comment on the most recurring ones, any new additions, etc.
Tip: to limit the selection, have all participants vote on the top ones, e.g. distribute 10 stickers per participants and let them vote.
Step 3: Build narratives and link them to SDGs (ca 60 min)
Again in the groups, participants take their picked challenges and imagine the city in the future, where these challenges have been overcome. The group then writes down a small narrative describing this future city.
Tip: instead of writing, you can also ask participants to draw or record a short video with their future story. You can also make videos in “news reports” from the future style, for example.
To link the narrative to the SDGs, add an additional step: by reading the SDGs and targets, ask participants to link the narrative to the most relevant goals. They can place the chosen SDG icons next to the narrative.
Step 4: Record and/or share between groups (time depending on number of groups)
Allow the groups to present their results quickly to each other, possibly making a simple phone camera recording when they read out the future narrative.