What do you actually care about? A workshop for UK journalists about values

Research consistently shows that most people value things like equality, community and connection. These things feel good to us intrinsically - they don't depend on external recognition or reward. Psychologists call them 'intrinsic values'.

But research on traditional 'news values', and our own research on how people perceive the media, suggests our culture tends to foreground a different set of values: wealth, status and power. These encourage us to seek external approval or compare ourselves to others. Psychologists call these 'extrinsic values'.

Common Cause Foundation research found that 74% of people in the UK prioritise intrinsic values - things like community, equality and connection. Yet 77% believe that other people don't share those values. The majority are wrong about the majority. And we believe journalism plays a role in sustaining that gap.

But before we talk about your audience, let's talk about you.

This free two-hour workshop invites journalists to start with themselves - exploring your own values, where they sit in a research-backed framework, and what it means that most of us share more than we think. From there, we'll look at what that means for how we cover the world: the stories we choose, the values we foreground, and what a more values-aware practice might look like.

In this session you will:

• Explore and map your own values using a research-backed framework
• Discover the UK values perception gap and its measurable effects on civic life
• Analyse real news coverage for the values it foregrounds - and those it misses
• Discuss what values-aware journalism looks like in practice
• Be introduced to our Values-aware journalism toolkit to use in your newsroom

The session is hosted by Common Cause Foundation and journalist and media researcher Kirsty Styles. It draws on CCF's newly launched Values-aware journalism toolkit, developed with working journalists to make values-aware editorial decisions accessible and practical. Find out more here: https://valuesawarejournalism.org/

This isn't a lecture, it's an exploration. Journalists are the experts - we're here to offer a framework, some data, and some space to think.

Please share this with colleagues who might like to attend.