Based mostly in Edinburgh, Scotland, Rachel Hamada is a founder and currently chair of investigative journalism cooperative The Ferret, runs Scottish film and arts organisation for social and environmental change Take One Action, and is a journalist, community organiser, theatre maker and creator.

Upcoming projects and events:

Resistance in Game Space, July 2025 - a creative get-together in Leith, Edinburgh, to explore the subversion of power in video games, one of Scotland’s biggest creative industries.

Real Utopias film festivals, September-November 2025 - Take One Action film festivals using film, arts and community gathering to explore how we can create utopias in the here and now.

Investigative Journalism and Dramaturgy workshops, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling autumn 2025 - more details tbc

Recent events:

Something Fishy - screenings and discussion in Edinburgh and Ullapool exploring industrial fish farming in Scotland and beyond (Take One Action)

Making Masculinities - short film screening and discussion at the CCA in Glasgow in collaboration with the Scottish Queer International Film Festival and Pillow Talk (Take One Action)

Workshop on Imagining a Better Future at Take One Action’s 2024 Summer Gathering

Publications and articles:

Chapter on Grassroots investigative journalism in Routledge’s Investigative Journalism Handbook

Bylines Cymru - The fertiliser effect: putting storytelling into community hands

Journalism.co.uk - Reporting with people, not on them: how The Bureau Local took a story full circle

Podcasts and appearances:

Inquest’s The UK is Not Innocent screening and discussion at Platform, Glasgow, as part of Glasgow International, 2024

Chaired panel for The Ferret on Who Owns Urban Scotland? 2023

Spoke at IMEDD media conference, Athens, on Making News Together, 2023

Journalism.co.uk, with Vicky Gayle - Getting Out of the Newsroom

The FFS Show - From the Margins and Citizen Reporting

International Journalism Festival, Perugia in 2019 and 2023 - spoke on decolonising journalism, using conversational interfaces for reporting and the rebirth of local investigative reporting

Presented on sparking change through journalism at Collaborative Journalism Summit, Washington DC, 2023

Presented at World News Media Congress 2019 in Glasgow

Ran events and workshops on community engagement at People Powered Publishing Conference, Chicago, 2018

Also appeared on BBC Scotland (discussing the future of the BBC!), Times Radio and more.

Classes and teaching:

Collaborative Reporting Masterclass for Civic Journalism Lab, Newcastle University

New Models of Journalism course delivered for NUJ Scotland

Lectures also given at Strathclyde, Glasgow and Napier Universities.

Other:

Scottish Government Working Group on Public Interest News report and recommendations

Took part in the European Journalism Centre’s one year pan-European News Impact Fellowship

Cited in Reuters Institute’s Case Studies in Collaborative Local Journalism and the Membership Puzzle Project’s report on Reinventing Journalism Education