"This in-depth investigation of the role that local news media play in Central African conflicts combines theoretical analysis with case studies from nine African countries: Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republi
...
c of Congo, and Rwanda. Each case study presents a comprehensive discussion of media influences during the various conflicts that have spread in the region and their impact on the peace process. Enriching the exploration, a chapter by Jean- Paul Marthoz (former director of information at Human Rights Watch) focuses on the ways in which the media in the global North cover crises on the African continent." (About the book, page 287)
more
"Trauma is at the heart of news — and of the human condition. How it’s reported gives those who weren’t there their first understanding of what a traumatic event means. Personally. For their families and loved-ones. For their community and their nation. Indeed, for the world as a whole. The jo
...
urnalism of trauma matters, and journalists have a profound responsibility to tell the story well. Their work can reflect, reinforce, and calm — or exacerbate — the grief and distress that ripples out from death and injury. Covering trauma, whether major international stories or events much closer to home, can also have an impact on those who do the reporting. Like the police, the fire and medical services, like military personnel and rescue workers, journalists are professional first responders to crisis and disaster. But they’re among the last of those groups to recognise the psychological implications of that responsibility. Just as sports reporters and financial journalists don’t open a notebook without a professional knowledge of their field, neither should those who report violence and tragedy. This handbook is the fruit of a Dart Centre consultation with journalists across the world, and it distils the expertise of the best international trauma experts." (Introduction)
more
"This book examines the crucial role the media played in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, bringing together local reporters and commentators from Rwanda, Western journalists, and media theorists. Part One (eight articles) describes and analyzes "Hate Media in Rwanda", mainly, but not exclusively, focusing
...
on Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM). Part Two (thirteen articles) presents a critique of international media coverage of the genocide, including not only the United States and Western Europe, but also Kenya and Nigeria. Part three (five articles) covers the deliberations by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on the role of the media in the genocide, identifying various missed opportunities. Part Four, "After the Genocide and the Way Forward" (six articles), goes beyond the Rwanda experiences, tackling issues like the use and abuse of media in vulnerable societies. The authors outline how censorship and propaganda can be avoided, argue for a new responsibility in media reporting, and give recommendations for media intervention in the prevention of genocidal violence." (CAMECO Update 1-2008)
more
"One thousand journalists and support staff have died trying to report the news around the world in the past 10 years: an average of two a week. Only one in four news media staff died covering war and other armed conflicts. The great majority died in peacetime, working in their own countries. At lea
...
st 657 men and women were murdered - eliminated as they tried to shine light into the dark recesses of their societies - and only one in eight of their killers were prosecuted. In two-thirds of cases the killers were not even identified, and probably never will be, underlining the absence of full and proper investigations when a journalist or other news professional is killed. The figures, compiled by INSI between January 1996 and June 2006, show it is virtually risk free to kill a journalist." (Executive summary, page 7)
more
"The very real danger in which conflict-journalists find themselves is well illustrated by the fact that during the recent conflict in Iraq proportionally more journalists were killed than members of the coalition forces (BalguyGallois March 2004 International Review of the Red Cross 37). The fact t
...
hat journalists in conflict zones require protection is no new notion to humanitarian law, as is evidenced by the Geneva Convention of 1929-07-27 (relative to the treatment of prisoners of war). However, problems may arise where journalists start choosing sides. Should a journalist enter the arena of hostilities on either side, the situation will be that a person protected, at least to the same degree as a local civilian, will have a bearing on the hostilities. No better example exists than the Nahimana case (The Prosecutor v Ferdinand Nahimana, Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, Hassan Ngeze case no ICTR-99-52-T (2003) (hereinafter "Nahimana")." (Abstract)
more
"Mainstream media coverage of war often distorts or ignores women’s perspectives and experiences in armed conflict, and also their efforts to build peace. This article focuses on the work of FIRE (Feminist International Radio Endeavour/Radio Internacional Feminista), a women’s international Inte
...
rnet radio initiative produced by Latin American and Caribbean women in Costa Rica, which ‘uses technologies, voices, and actions’ to amplify the voices of women worldwide as they recount their experiences and perspectives of armed conflict. In doing so, FIRE helps promote an alternative vision of human existence that is based on social justice and human rights, and which serves to strengthen women’s and other social and political movements that are based on these values." (Abstract)
more
"Conflicts are more effectively managed if people understand the layers meaning in their conflicts and collaborate based on those meanings. In this book, author Peter M. Kellett analyzes and interprets real-life conflict stories as a way to create opportunities for more productive ways to navigate a
...
nd resolve conflict." (Publisher description)
more
"This paper investigates occupational stressors amongst media personnel assigned to work on covering the Iraq War via interviews with 54 journalists from the BBC and Reuters, who worked in Iraq between February and April 2003. A range of stressors were identified that could be categorized into three
...
main themes, control over the situation, support from management and grief from the death of colleagues. Journalists not embedded with military units were more likely to report negative physical and emotional health outcomes. The study concludes that hazardous work environments do not, by themselves, cause stress and poor job satisfaction. Rather, organizational factors, the imbalance between the ability to make decisions about how to carry out their job effectively and the perceived rewards of working in such environments appear to have a greater impact on work related stress." (Abstract)
more
"Live News: A Survival Guide for Journalists, is carefully tailored to help journalists to prepare themselves mentally, physically and psychologically before engaging on an assignment that can be very dangerous. The guiding tips provided in the text help to prepare the journalists mentally before, h
...
e/she moves into a hostile environment or an area that he/she is not familiar with. In trying to bring the news “home” so many journalists have been killed in the process. Some are deliberately targeted, while others are killed in what is now termed as “friendly fire”. A lot more die in accident related cases or at times fall seriously ill while on such mission or sustain serious injuries through natural causes. Live News: A Survival Guide for Journalists tries to minimise such occurrences by giving survival tips to journalists who might find themselves in critical conditions." (Preface)
more
"For policy making, the 24/7 news cycle means high levels of exposure to fast-breaking international stories receiving global attention and producing a powerful 'do something!' effect. This topical book widens the debate beyond US media and policy making by considering the case of Western and Easter
...
n European media and policy processes. It tests the wider application of existing theoretical approaches and provides useful comparisons, allowing the reader to draw conclusions on the media-policy relationship." (Publisher description)
more
"This paper attempts to measure the impact of naturally occurring media frames on public support for a policy. Content analysis of network nightly news during late October of 2001 reveals that U.S. media framed the events of September 11 in terms of both war and crime. A concurrent survey of 328 Ten
...
nesseans reveals that rather than adopting either a war frame or a crime frame, audiences combined elements of these media frames in various ways and that their subsequent understanding of the events of September 11 had an impact on their support for the war in Afghanistan. The results reveal the complexity of the framing phenomenon in natural environments and suggest the need for better measures of how audiences perceive media frames as well as further investigation into framing as a means of coalition building." (Abstract)
more
"This report [...] recommends that interveners take the following series of steps as they generate a strategy for media development in post-conflict zones.
Predeployment Phase: Mapping and Strategizing: map out the existing media landscape; identify the postwar condition of the media infrastructure,
...
media personnel, and other resources that have survived the conflict; assess the history of state-media relations; analyze the potential market for sustainable media; create a strategy for developing media; coordinate all relevant players in media development; identify spoilers and create a plan to isolate extremist voices while elevating moderate ones; plan to establish a responsible media sector before the first postwar elections are held.
Deployment Phase: Building and Developing: build a foundation for the media sector; establish a mission-owned outlet to monitor and counter hate speech while promoting peace operations; create a representative media commission to establish media standards; create legal underpinnings for media during the transition or help the government to do so; create media outlets and develop personnel; encourage creation of a diverse array of media outlets and ensure media accessibility by different segments of the population; establish effective on-the-job training programs and mechanisms for evaluating trainees and university-based training programs; create local associations of journalists, publishers, and editors to strengthen leadership and connect local media actors to international media networks.
Exit Phase: Transitioning and Sustaining: transition to local control and ensure long-term sustainability; gradually give full control to local media leaders; ensure a robust media market in which private outlets are self-sustaining; create an indigenous mechanism to continue monitoring hate speech." (Summary)
more
"The importance of hate radio pervades commentary on the Rwandan genocide, and Rwanda has become a paradigmatic case of media sparking extreme violence. However, there exists little social scientific analysis of radio's impact on the onset of genocide and the mobilization of genocide participants. T
...
hrough an analysis of exposure, timing, and content as well as interviews with perpetrators, the article refutes the conventional wisdom that broadcasts from the notorious radio station RTLM were a primary determinant of genocide. Instead, the article finds evidence of conditional media effects, which take on significance only when situated in a broader context of violence." (Abstract)
more