From Division to Dialogue: News Ambassadors Bring Depolarization Training to the Public

​News Ambassadors offers a public Depolarization Strategies training on March 10, 2026. It teaches the Complicating the Narratives method, developed by Amanda Ripley and Hélène Biandudi Hofer, which applies conflict mediation psychology to move beyond us-versus-them narratives. Led by accredited trainer Shia Levitt, the virtual training translates methods for journalists into tools for deeper listening and effective communication in polarizing times. Offered on a sliding scale, it subsidizes costs for journalism students and newsrooms while making depolarization strategies accessible to broader audiences. This training advances NCDD’s mission by providing practitioners with methods to challenge polarization through listening, problem framing, complexity engagement, and bias examination, equipping them to facilitate constructive dialogue across differences.

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News Ambassadors is offering a public Depolarization Strategies training on March 10, 2026, teaching the Complicating the Narratives method developed by High Conflict author Amanda Ripley and Good Conflict colleague Hélène Biandudi Hofer. While originally designed for journalists covering contentious issues, this 1-hour 45-minute virtual training is open to all interested individuals, including non-journalists seeking tools for deeper listening and effective communication during polarizing times. The method emerged from researching conflict mediation psychology studies examining how people behave when feeling suspicious and threatened by the other side, distilling lessons that have applications across reporting types and far beyond the journalism field. The training focuses on four pillars: Listen Differently, Go Beneath the Problem, Embrace Complexity, and Counter Confirmation Bias, equipping participants with practical strategies for moving beyond us-versus-them narratives.

The training will be led by Shia Levitt, a longtime public radio journalist and journalism educator who directs News Ambassadors, a project enlisting college journalists to help local newsrooms fill coverage gaps in underreported communities through solutions journalism, depolarization strategies, and community-responsive reporting. As an accredited trainer of both Solutions Journalism and Complicating the Narratives, Levitt brings extensive experience teaching these methods to newsrooms, classrooms, and leadership cohorts. Recent trainees from the Report for America corps and public radio stations have described the training as exceptionally well-done, nuanced, and directly relevant to today's news environment, providing tools they can incorporate into daily routines. The training includes 22 questions that participants have identified as essential resources for journalism education and practice.

News Ambassadors offers the training on a sliding scale basis with suggested donations of forty to seventy-five dollars, ensuring no one is turned away for lack of funds while enabling the organization to subsidize costs for journalism students and newsrooms with limited budgets. This accessibility model reflects a commitment to equipping the next generation of journalists with strategies to tell stronger stories of collective identity rather than division, while making these tools available to anyone seeking to improve communication across differences. For dialogue and deliberation practitioners, the training offers evidence-based methods grounded in conflict psychology that translate academic research into immediately applicable techniques for challenging polarization through how we listen, frame problems, engage complexity, and examine our own biases.
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To register for the March 10, 2026, Depolarization Strategies training, visit https://sojonewsambassadors.org/events/