DNA of storytelling in Bernt Jakob Oksnes’s talent
photo: Gard Michalsen
LAUSANNE, April 16, 2021 - Besides being a touching life story and thrilling piece of narrative journalism, “Mom is Dying” —winner of the AIPS Sport Media Awards 2020 Colour Piece— uncovered an unknown drama: the health risks linked to fluorinated ski wax.
Why did the ski coach and mother of three, Toril Stokkebø (49), die of aggressive cancer? The doctors suggested that the cancer was due to her 15 years of ski waxing for hundreds of children. “Mom is Dying” is the main story in a series about the health risks linked to fluorinated ski wax published by Dagbladet. The author, Bernt Jakob Oksnes wanted to use an emotional story to bring to life this complex medical and chemical issue. 1 million people, one fifth of the Norwegian population, read the story.
How did you craft this feature?
It was a chemically and medically complex story. In order to engage the reader we had to find a creative and emotional way to write it. Ski wax was the most effective tool to get the skis lay fast: it is very expensive and very well-known among the elites and professional skiers. Starting from 30 years ago began to spread among the amateurs, even to youth and children. So moms and dads would spend hours in shells and small garages without ventilation to put this waxes on children’s skis. Toril, mom of three, was also a ski trainer for hundreds of kids: in 2016 she got cancer and wrote a letter to a skiing magazine to tell her story and why the waxes should not be used. It was a small news here. They all believed she would overcome it but it was a very aggressive form of cancer and the tumor was as large as a handball, she died after 8 months of the first diagnosis, when she was 49. In 2017 I started going deeper in the story and I wanted to tell her story, I met her husband and then went further speaking to her children. It was then getting into a portrait of a woman, of a mom. I decided to make it as a long story with two lines: one of them was the woman’s life, her success as a ski trainer, beloved mom, and her way up, the other line, the time of illness, her battle against cancer. I divided the story into four chapters and also inside the chapters there’s a lot of move in the narrative. So I was leaving this success story on a very dramatic cliffhanger and then going back to her fight to cancer, going back and forward.
What was the most difficult part in approaching this story?
I interviewed 24 people for this story: family members, old ski friends and other people. I had so much notes and didn’t know how to start. I believe the techniques I had to use to get this into a good read was to create an expectation: that’s is the DNA of all storytelling. But creating expectation is not the same as giving the final answers. What creates the greatest expectation and excitement? That’s emotion. Creating an insecure feeling. We don’t know what’s going to happen, that’s always an effective tool.
We noticed it while describing Toril waiting for her kids on the top of the hills or in the most difficult part of the race: you were lingering on that image to recall it to the reader’s memory at the very end of the story, right?
That’s true: I used it quite deliberately, quite effectively. I heard about that story: she used to stand in the most deep part of the forest, on the most difficult hills and she was running together with the children, cheering for them: it was an emotional image, I tried to highlight and repeat it several times. One of the most difficult part of building your story is when you have to give the reader the details you have: this is called sequence of the story. You, as a narrator decide when to release that specific detail.
How complex was the investigative side for this piece?
This is the opening of a big series of investigation. The first meeting with the widower was very special, very emotional, we sat for many hours. He was receiving phone calls from 5-6 other widows saying their husbands died of cancer and they were also doing ski waxing for many, many years. That immediately hit my investigative journalism values and I went back to the office to explain that it was not just about her human touching story. So we got three more colleagues on board from our media house and we started to work. We found so many things: we did research, lungs tests on mom and dads who were doing ski waxing, we measured also the fluorine values to have an idea not just on health but also environmental issues. It was a huge investigative project. It wasn’t a sexy topic, so in order to get the reader with us, we used the powerful story of the mom.
What was the international result of this article?
More than one million people read it in Norway. The cool thing that happened was that a month after the series of articles was released we got a lot of attention and FIS, International Ski Federation decided to ban fluorine from all competition. They had discussed it earlier to do something, but it was quite shocking that this came so early after our publication.
So the federation already knew about the damaging effects of wax since 2009, but nothing changed until 2020?
The family of Toril is furious and sad about this. As a journalist, I can only bring their feelings out. In 2010 the professional waxers were having their high-tech waxers ready for use, but there were early studies that this might be harmful.
Some of them developed illness. This information about how dangerous it was wasn’t spread among the thousands of amateurs, that’s the critics we are trying to bring up.
When did you start writing and why?
When I was a kid, I was visiting grand-mom and she was reading this local newspaper: we had a silent connection, we were not talking much, but I was reading and she was enjoying me sitting there. It was there I first enter in the world of storytelling which highly inspired me. Then I had a neighbour who was sport journalist on a local newspaper and at the age of 14 I asked him if I could help him… That was the start of my career. I ended up in Oslo working for some of the biggest newspapers. I’ve been doing mostly long reads over the years, quite emotional and dramatic stories.
Long-form articles against fast news.
That’s a good point. The reality of the world is so chaotic nowadays. Our mission as journalists is to tell reality as a story. You can get your messages and the news hits your readers in a slower way: you can move and touch them.
Do you plan to write a book?
I got some offers through the years, but I love when journalism meets literature in the same piece. When journalism can evolve and develop: I try to do more innovative journalism. And I’m really honoured for the recognition AIPS gave me for this: it really means a lot to me and to my media house.
Why did the ski coach and mother of three, Toril Stokkebø (49), die of aggressive cancer? The doctors suggested that the cancer was due to her 15 years of ski waxing for hundreds of children. “Mom is Dying” is the main story in a series about the health risks linked to fluorinated ski wax published by Dagbladet. The author, Bernt Jakob Oksnes wanted to use an emotional story to bring to life this complex medical and chemical issue. 1 million people, one fifth of the Norwegian population, read the story.
How did you craft this feature?
It was a chemically and medically complex story. In order to engage the reader we had to find a creative and emotional way to write it. Ski wax was the most effective tool to get the skis lay fast: it is very expensive and very well-known among the elites and professional skiers. Starting from 30 years ago began to spread among the amateurs, even to youth and children. So moms and dads would spend hours in shells and small garages without ventilation to put this waxes on children’s skis. Toril, mom of three, was also a ski trainer for hundreds of kids: in 2016 she got cancer and wrote a letter to a skiing magazine to tell her story and why the waxes should not be used. It was a small news here. They all believed she would overcome it but it was a very aggressive form of cancer and the tumor was as large as a handball, she died after 8 months of the first diagnosis, when she was 49. In 2017 I started going deeper in the story and I wanted to tell her story, I met her husband and then went further speaking to her children. It was then getting into a portrait of a woman, of a mom. I decided to make it as a long story with two lines: one of them was the woman’s life, her success as a ski trainer, beloved mom, and her way up, the other line, the time of illness, her battle against cancer. I divided the story into four chapters and also inside the chapters there’s a lot of move in the narrative. So I was leaving this success story on a very dramatic cliffhanger and then going back to her fight to cancer, going back and forward.
What was the most difficult part in approaching this story?
I interviewed 24 people for this story: family members, old ski friends and other people. I had so much notes and didn’t know how to start. I believe the techniques I had to use to get this into a good read was to create an expectation: that’s is the DNA of all storytelling. But creating expectation is not the same as giving the final answers. What creates the greatest expectation and excitement? That’s emotion. Creating an insecure feeling. We don’t know what’s going to happen, that’s always an effective tool.
We noticed it while describing Toril waiting for her kids on the top of the hills or in the most difficult part of the race: you were lingering on that image to recall it to the reader’s memory at the very end of the story, right?
That’s true: I used it quite deliberately, quite effectively. I heard about that story: she used to stand in the most deep part of the forest, on the most difficult hills and she was running together with the children, cheering for them: it was an emotional image, I tried to highlight and repeat it several times. One of the most difficult part of building your story is when you have to give the reader the details you have: this is called sequence of the story. You, as a narrator decide when to release that specific detail.
How complex was the investigative side for this piece?
This is the opening of a big series of investigation. The first meeting with the widower was very special, very emotional, we sat for many hours. He was receiving phone calls from 5-6 other widows saying their husbands died of cancer and they were also doing ski waxing for many, many years. That immediately hit my investigative journalism values and I went back to the office to explain that it was not just about her human touching story. So we got three more colleagues on board from our media house and we started to work. We found so many things: we did research, lungs tests on mom and dads who were doing ski waxing, we measured also the fluorine values to have an idea not just on health but also environmental issues. It was a huge investigative project. It wasn’t a sexy topic, so in order to get the reader with us, we used the powerful story of the mom.
What was the international result of this article?
More than one million people read it in Norway. The cool thing that happened was that a month after the series of articles was released we got a lot of attention and FIS, International Ski Federation decided to ban fluorine from all competition. They had discussed it earlier to do something, but it was quite shocking that this came so early after our publication.
So the federation already knew about the damaging effects of wax since 2009, but nothing changed until 2020?
The family of Toril is furious and sad about this. As a journalist, I can only bring their feelings out. In 2010 the professional waxers were having their high-tech waxers ready for use, but there were early studies that this might be harmful.
Some of them developed illness. This information about how dangerous it was wasn’t spread among the thousands of amateurs, that’s the critics we are trying to bring up.
When did you start writing and why?
When I was a kid, I was visiting grand-mom and she was reading this local newspaper: we had a silent connection, we were not talking much, but I was reading and she was enjoying me sitting there. It was there I first enter in the world of storytelling which highly inspired me. Then I had a neighbour who was sport journalist on a local newspaper and at the age of 14 I asked him if I could help him… That was the start of my career. I ended up in Oslo working for some of the biggest newspapers. I’ve been doing mostly long reads over the years, quite emotional and dramatic stories.
Long-form articles against fast news.
That’s a good point. The reality of the world is so chaotic nowadays. Our mission as journalists is to tell reality as a story. You can get your messages and the news hits your readers in a slower way: you can move and touch them.
Do you plan to write a book?
I got some offers through the years, but I love when journalism meets literature in the same piece. When journalism can evolve and develop: I try to do more innovative journalism. And I’m really honoured for the recognition AIPS gave me for this: it really means a lot to me and to my media house.
News from the same category
