Peacemakers Trust posts news, reports or announcements of interest to people studying or working in the field of dispute resolution, conflict transformation and peacebuilding. Inclusion of an item on the media watch blog does not imply endorsement or agreement of Peacemakers Trust with views expressed by authors of posted items.
As a former ballet dancer, a teacher, and a technologist, it dawned on me what incredible power there is in flexibility. It’s not uncommon to assume an easily movable object is a flimsy one. People tread nervously across suspension bridges and balk at the thought of buying a camera tripod as silly-looking as this one. And yet, the more I think about it, the more I realize the ingenuity and inherent power in flexibility. Surveying many educational environments reveals that some of our most powerful assets as teachers and learners are, in fact, the most flexible ones. These assets include the wires beneath our school grounds, the resources we find online, and most importantly, our very selves.
For decades, the Castro government has been very effective in repressing dissent in Cuba by, among other things, preventing its critics from publishing or broadcasting their views on the island. Yet in recent years the blogosphere has created an outlet for a new kind of political criticism that is harder to control. Can it make a difference?
There are more than one hundred unauthorized bloggers in Cuba, including at least two dozen who are openly critical of the government…
Like other government critics, these bloggers face reprisals…
Sarah Shahi USA Networks has announced their new programming lineup and Facing Kate, the new drama featuring Sarah Shahi that has family mediation as its center, is set to air in January. The series focuses on the world of lawyers who, like Kate, resign from practicing law and simply mediate clients’ disagreements.
I never thought I’d say it, but here goes. Glenn Beck is right! Reviving the message of Martin Luther King , Jr. would indeed go considerable distance toward restoring honor to America.
Unfortunately, Beck fails to grasp the implications of his call; MLK Jr.’s message entails radical politics of just the sort that he and his reactionary followers would find appalling.
In addition to spawning passionate debates in the public, the news media and the political class, the proposal to build a Muslim community center near Ground Zero in New York has revealed widespread misconceptions about the practice of Islam in this country — and the role of mosques in particular.
European Graduate School | Arts, Health and Society Division
The Expressive Arts and Conflict Transformation (EXA-CT) M.A. is a three year program concentrating on the use of creative methods to address conflicts within teams, communities, and international states…
Professional artists, peaceworkers, art therapists, mediators, educators, coaches, and humanitarian workers are encouraged to pursue the EXA-CT MA program.
For further information please contact the Program Director MaryBeth.Morand(at)egs(dot)edu
Today’s edition of Reporting on Conflict was stimulated by a short electronic conversation with a colleague about the ethics of using photos of horrific suffering to raise funds or to sell news or causes during disasters, famine or armed-conflict. We have posted six stories:
We acknowledge Susanne Ure of Amnesty International Canada who pointed out most of these articles. Please let us know about other articles on this topic or online policies or standards of humanitarian organizations of which you are aware.
The photographic reporting of famine, especially in ‘Africa’, continues to replicate stereotypes. Malnourished children, either pictured alone in passive poses or with their mothers at hand, continue to be the obvious subjects of our gaze. What should drive our concern about this persistent portrayal? This morning [13 April] I came across an example that demonstrates how criticism needs to be careful before it can make its point effectively.
The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), “a professional society that promotes the highest standards in visual journalism,” has a code of ethics that all members are required to endorse. Whether or not you are a member, I think that they are excellent guidelines for any photographer working in the field, documenting people and humanitarian situations.
Photographic and video images can reveal great truths, expose wrongdoing and neglect, inspire hope and understanding and connect people around the globe through the language of visual understanding. Photographs can also cause great harm if they are callously intrusive or are manipulated…
Visual journalists and those who manage visual news productions are accountable for upholding the following standards in their daily work:
1. Be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of subjects.
2. Resist being manipulated by staged photo opportunities.
3. Be complete and provide context when photographing or recording subjects. Avoid stereotyping individuals and groups. Recognize and work to avoid presenting one’s own biases in the work.
4. Treat all subjects with respect and dignity. Give special consideration to vulnerable subjects and compassion to victims of crime or tragedy. Intrude on private moments of grief only when the public has an overriding and justifiable need to see…
Pictures are worth 1,000 words – in the newspaper business that equals about 25 inches of print. Images are one of the most powerful forms of communication, especially in journalism. One image or sound can summarize an event or person or motivate a nation; one image can upset people more than endless pages of print on the subject…
How graphic should — or must — images be to tell the news story? If news outlets use graphic pictures of war, they are accused of exploiting the pain of others. If they avoid graphic photos, they are accused of “sanitizing” the conflict. What criteria should guide photo decisions — local or community standards? Newsworthiness? Dramatic impact? A commitment to tell the whole truth?
International Review of the Red Cross no 315, p.609-613
By Gilbert Holleufer
The presentation of facts and the moral response to them are now so closely interrelated that all those who provide images of humanitarian action — whether media professionals or humanitarian organizations themselves — share a heavy burden of responsibility. For what moral justification can be found for broadcasting, night after night, all too summary newsflashes showing throngs of starving people, piles of corpses and seemingly endless scenes of horror? And what justification can be found for showing certain scenes rather than others? Finally, is any serious attempt made to explain what is shown? It would seem that the legitimate moral questions which pictures of human tragedy raise for television viewers or readers too often receive unsatisfactory answers. The media increasingly confine themselves to covering — the word, with its sense of covering up, is appropriate — humanitarian crises and situations of armed conflict in all too superficial a way…
The eight-foot-long Norwegian electric car Buddy may not be most people’s idea of a perfectly sized car, but it is the perfect size for blocking train tracks, as the activist group Neptune Network recently proved, when it managed to block shipments from a mine that was polluting a nearby salmon-fjord.
Compassion should not be reserved only for those we judge to be deserving
By Catherine Pepinster, editor of The Tablet, the Catholic weekly
Who tugs at your heartstrings? The children of Haiti, their homes crushed by an earthquake? The breast cancer victim, whose illness means she won’t see her children grow up? The drug addict whose habit has wrecked his life? The people of Pakistan, devastated by floods? Or someone in prison for a shocking offence who pleads to be freed to die in their own home?
Cries for help, be they from people wanting practical help or charitable aid, elicit a variety of responses, some based on whether we can afford to help, some due to compassion for fellow human beings. But events of recent weeks suggest that something else is happening too, something akin to the Victorians’ idea about the deserving and undeserving. This is not so much compassion as a judgmental Lady Bountiful act.
A 90-year-old Jewish peace activist won the International Peace Award from the United Nations Association of Australia.
Stella Cornelius was presented the award Aug. 13 in Sydney…
The citation stated: “The International Peace Award is made to Dr Cornelius for a lifetime of devotion to peace, conflict resolution and social justice issues; and in particular for initiating the Peace and Conflict Resolution Program of the UNAA 1973; the Conflict Resolution Network; the Media Peace Awards 1979; the Ministry for Peace Campaign 1983; the Bilateral Peace Treaties Proposal.”
By Ishmael Ben-Israel, A.M.A.L. Initiative for the Advancement of the Arabic Language in Israel
Israeli Arabs make up a large minority group (20%) within the general population of the country. This group suffers from discrimination at different levels of Israeli society, in the public as well as private sectors. Contemporary state initiated policies of affirmative action, have yet to be proven efficient tools in the struggle against ongoing Arab under-representation in Israel’s workforce and institutions of higher education…
So what can bridge the gaps and get the two communities to communicate with one another?
In the upcoming school year (2010-2011) a local grassroots initiative will challenge the traditional way we Israelis think of Arabs in general and our conception of the Arabic language in particular.
This great editorial speaks to the challenges and necessities of giving a voice to the voiceless. The author, Mary Magellan, traveled to Sierra Leone as part of a peacebuilding course. Her fellow students met with Search for Common Ground staff in Sierra Leone to learn about the roles they have played in the peacebuilding process and how they have engaged media in their efforts…
By http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/movies/Tibet+In+Song-8956.html
Tibet in Song is both a celebration of traditional Tibetan folk music and a harrowing journey into the past fifty years of cultural repression inside Chinese controlled Tibet.
Director and former Tibetan political prisoner, Ngawang Choephel, weaves a story of beauty, pain, brutality and resilience, introducing Tibet to the world in a way never before seen on film… more
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