Stories

By Neten Dorji, Reporter of Kuensel

5 November 2025

A two-day Narrative Storytelling Workshop concluding today has equipped 32 media professionals with the skills to move beyond conventional reporting and forge deeper connections with their audience. The workshop organised by the Bhutan Media Foundation in collaboration with Newsreel Asia and the High Commission of Canada in India, focused on techniques to make complex issues more relatable. Participants learned to weave facts with character de-velopment, evocative settings, and emotional depth to create stories that truly resonate.

“We need to plan carefully, think before we write or shoot, and focus on what makes a story meaningful,” said trainer Vishal Arora, a former journal-ist. “The challenge isn’t a lack of audience interest, but our ability to truly capture their attention.”

Through hands-on ses-sions, journalists practiced story mapping, narrative structuring, and identifying the emotional core of their field reports. Many left feeling reconnected to the essence of their craft. “We often rush to meet deadlines and forget the human side of stories, missing the power of narrative form,” said Devika Pradhan, a reporter from Bhutan Broadcasting Service.

She added that the training encouraged participants to incorporate narrative sto-rytelling. Yeshi Dolma, a reporter from Bhutan Today said, “Pre-viously, our approach was largely data-driven and lacked emotional connection. Now I see how empathy can make stories more relatable and im-pactful.”

Participants said that these human-centred techniques are crucial for capturing audience attention in the age of social media scrolling. Dawa Tshering, a producer for Radio Dzongkha, said that he plans to incorporate more narrative elements like scene-setting and natural sound. “The training helped me understand how to use pacing and dialogue to guide listeners through a story emotionally,” he said.

One freelancer said that the workshop provided practical insights into long-form storytelling technique, while another highlighted preserving emotional depth in audiovisual reporting.

The Executive Director of Bhutan Media Foundation, Riku Dhan Subba, said that the workshop’s goal was to strengthen human-centred storytelling and ensure journalists explore different narrative forms.

“The most important thing is to learn immersive storytell-ing, especially stories related to Gross National Happiness, which focus on empathy,” he said. “It is also about building connections among journalists from five Asian countries so they can learn from each other”

Following the workshop, around 200 journalists from Bhutan, Nepal, India, and Sri Lanka will be able to connect and share experiences. Next year, an award will recognise excellence in narrative storytelling through a competition across these five countries.