Document details

Handbook: A Conflict Sensitive Approach to Reporting on Conflict and Violent Extremism

Internews (2019), 143 pp.

Contains bibliogr. pp. 141-143

"The handbook begins with a more general focus on conflict and on the different contributions journalists can make if they adopt a conflict sensitive approach to reporting. Key ideas relating to conflict senstive reporting are spelt out in some detail in Part One and this provides a conceptual basis for the rest of the text. The remainder of the handbook focuses more specifically on how a conflict sensitive approach to reporting can enable journalists to make a constructive contribution when reporting on situations involving violent extremists and terrorists. Readers who are are primarily interested in these issues can skip Part One and begin their reading at the start of Part Two. That said, many of the ideas discussed in Part One, such as tips for understanding conflict, or interviewing people in conflict situations, would also inform the coverage of extremism and terrorism. One of the corner stones of conflict sensitive reporting is the assumption that the more journalists know about conflict, the better equipped they will be to report constructively on disputes, confrontations, insurgencies and wars. The handbook assumes the same thing when it comes to reporting on extremism and terrorism and consequently provides a detailed discussion of some relevant aspects relating to these manifestation of conflict in Part Two. Part Three looks specifically at things journalists can do when reporiting extremist activities in a community and how, by applying principles of fair, independent and transparent reporting, they can help to limit the harmful effects of these activities. Part Four deals specifically with contributions journalists can make when reporting on actual terrorist attacks, while Part Five, written by Jem Thomas, focuses specifically on violent extremism in the digital world. Part Six: Looking After Yourself, pays attention to question relating to journalists physical safety and psychological well being." (Page 6)