The workshop on discussion of news items within the scope of Media Watch on Hate Speech project was held on November 27, 2019 with the contributions of Friedrich Naumann Foundation and with the participation of individuals from different segments of the society.

In the workshop, discriminatory discourse targeting women and LGBTI people were discussed through different examples of news stories. Workshop took place at Hrant Dink Foundation Anarad Hığutyun Building under the facilitation of Dr. İdil Engindeniz. The participants of the workshop were chosen among the applicants of the open call by the Foundation. In addition to the project team and the facilitator, workshop was participated by nine people including students from departments of Sociology, History, Political Science, Psychology, Literature, Economics and individuals from different professions such as journalism. In the workshop, the ways by which the framework of a news’ story produce and reproduce gender roles with its headline, lead sentence, image and content; what statements in the print media and everyday language reinforce prejudices against women and LGBTI individuals, reproduce hate speech and heteronormative understanding; and how it is possible to establish a non-violent and rights-based alternative discourse in producing news were discussed.

In the last session, via a selected news story, it was considered that how could it be possible to write a news free from discrimination together with the participants and a collective re-writing exercise was done in the workshop. During this exercise, word choices and expressions while writing a news article were discussed specifically, then the selected news article was re-written all together.