White Mirroring
White Mirroring is a speculative storytelling process in three steps: scenario, character, conflict. It tells futures in which people act despite real resistance, as a counter-design to Black Mirror. Jonas Drechsel developed it for newsrooms and media makers. The stories stay realistic, conflicts and costs included.
Black Mirror on Netflix reflects the downfall and serves as the counter-image. Ursula K. Le Guin stands for utopias that show their cracks.
What this sounds like shows in the pilot episode “The Empathy Algorithm”: Hamburg 2029, an algorithm auditor and an AI mediator in couples therapy.
The idea first appeared in 2024 in Jonas Drechsel’s text “White Mirror: Ein Gedankenspiel mit Hoffnung” on Einbildungskanal. In 2026 he is developing it into a method in the Future of News Fellowship at Media Lab Bayern.
Guiding questions
- Which trend becomes the ruling logic in this world?
- Who acts in it despite the resistance?
- Which dilemma has no easy answer?