For our 11th birthday we brought together people from across the world, young and old, to explore the power of journalism and education to amplify voices.
Video replay of the Decoder Dialogue, “Writing to Be Heard” on 9 June 2026.
In an age defined by fast-moving media and quantifiable data, we often lose sight of educational values and the importance of personal expression. It’s hard to navigate the news.
So how should young people interact with education and journalism? What roles should those play in their lives?
In celebration of our 11th birthday, News Decoder hosted a Decoder Dialogue on 9 June. We brought together students, educators, correspondents, interns and staff from around the world to reflect on past achievements and look towards the future. Under the theme, “Writing to Be Heard”, the discussion — across different global perspectives, experience levels and ages — explored the way journalism can give voices to those overlooked in global spaces.
Yosr Manai, a student at the African Leadership Academy in South Africa, referenced a story she wrote about social treatment of girls’ virginity — which won the top prize in News Decoder’s last storytelling competition — to describe the privilege of voice. “Through the story I was able to honour someone’s story and voice … the way they wanted to be shared,” she said.
With her reporting, Manai was able to listen to others’ experiences, providing her with opportunities to learn and educate others.
Privilege, power and paying forward
Hannah Choo, a News Decoder intern based in South Korea, spoke of the impact journalism has had on her in terms of facilitating human connections and interactions. She described her involvement with News Decoder as a transformative experience. “I think it was really cool for me to think about how much freedom and power that young people have,” she said.
Choo said that her work with the News Decoder team on the EYES project — empowering youth to write and take environmental action — deepened her appreciation of how different platforms allow individuals to access broader perspectives and audiences.
“I think journalism is kind of that middle bridge that allows young people to do that,” Choo said.
Joshua Glazer, a sophomore at Emory University in the United States, said he is grateful for spaces that welcome youth voices. “I literally credit everything that I do with journalism to News Decoder,” he said. “It gave me the first opportunity to really get myself out there.”
As an intern with News Decoder, Glazer is helping to develop educational materials and opportunities for young people. He sees it as a way to “pay it forward”.
Beyond academics
Anne Kamau, a teacher at African Leadership Academy, said that working with News Decoder, her students were able to interact with journalism as a form of communication and expression.
“The idea of being able to contribute to dialogue is what young people want,” she said. “They want their voices to be heard; they want their voices to shape narratives; they want their voices to be part of, you know, the discourses.”
Kamau said that News Decoder’s resources offered her the opportunity to show her students that their voices can matter beyond their academics. “Their voices can shape discussions across the world,” she said.
Kamau said that for her students, engaging with journalism and media platforms were liberating experiences, allowing them to express their personal identities.
“As a teacher of writing, I did see working with News Decoder as allowing me to push writing skills development,” she said.”I think News Decoder then helped me to take my students to a world stage, for them to participate in real-world discourse.”
Access to information
Across the panel, educators, staff and students alike saw journalism as an important way to highlight voices and experiences that might otherwise have been overlooked or hidden. They agreed that there is a need for greater opportunities for wider learning, communication and expression within academic spaces and classrooms.
Marcy Burstiner, News Decoder’s educational news director, described her role as “the most exciting job I think I’ve ever had,” because of the organisation’s aims of encouraging young people to engage in dialogue and discourse.
“Because I do think journalism — when you practice it, by anyone, anywhere in the world — is transformative,” she said. “It forces people to listen. It forces people to see other people in a different way. I think if we had more people doing that, we would have more dialogue in this world, which we really desperately need.”
Christianez Ratna Kiruba, a physician and alum of the University of Toronto’s Global Journalism Fellowship, described her experiences with journalism in relation to her role as a public health professional.
“Being a doctor in India, one of the biggest things that we complain about is that our patients do not have the right kind of health information,” she said. “We would like people to be more interested in their own problems, and we would like people to have more health literacy.”
Writing articles allowed her to simplify complex medical jargon into easily understood information in order to educate more people about public health and medicine, such as through an article about snake bites and the clash between the professional and traditional medical systems in India.
“I realized that if I find a gap, the best thing to do is to fill the gap yourself,” Kiruba said.
Journalism and education
The panelists discussed how journalism can bring voices, problems and solutions into the spotlight and how this intersects with News Decoder’s mission — to increase literacy and awareness around current world issues and provide a space for student voices to connect across borders.
Kiruba said it is essential for journalism to be accessible — particularly in terms of language — to open up discussion on privilege.
“If you can’t speak English, you’re probably barred from most journalism opportunities,” Kiruba said. “A lot of journalism is based out of English-speaking nations.”
She pointed towards the need for greater acknowledgement of language barriers within the news industry. Information is often taken from communities in a one-sided transaction, without giving them resources in return, such as the finished article in their native languages, she said.
“So as journalists, one thing we could do is translate [our articles] back to their language and give them back what we have surmised or what we have put together from them in a way that benefits them as well,” Kiruba said.
Many of the panelists expressed the desire to expand school curriculums and educational structures to involve more student-voice oriented spaces. Cathal O’Luanaigh, News Decoder’s program and communications manager said it is important that both schools and news organizations not dictate to people.
“Rather than assuming what people need, ask them what they want,” he said. “Same thing goes for students. Even though they’re young, necessity and desires are still aspects we can tap into as educators. We talk about innovation and we talk about change, but really, are we changing?”
You can view the Decoder Dialogue here — Writing to be heard: How building journalism skills shapes global perspectives.
Isabel Wen is a News Decoder summer intern. Having grown up in both England and Taiwan, her interest in global affairs and cultures means she is never in one place for long. Currently studying English Literature in Trinity College Dublin, she will also be studying at Columbia University. She has been exploring different literary programs and organisations from across the world, spanning from Oxford to Amherst to Taipei to the basements of the New York Times. When she’s not hopping around the literary world, her time is otherwise occupied with long hikes or training sessions as a target-shooting athlete.