"The role of journalists in covering trauma and tragedy isn’t new. Witnessing acts of violence, destruction and terror has long been the professional responsibility of countless print and broadcast reporters and photographers. But what is new is a growing awareness of the emotional consequences of
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such coverage on the victims, their families and loved ones, their communities, and on the journalists whose job it is to tell these stories. Trauma Journalism personalizes this movement with in-depth profiles of reporters, researchers and trauma experts engaged in an international effort to transform how the media work under the most difficult of conditions. Through biographical sketches concerning several significant traumatic events (Oklahoma City bombing, Columbine school tragedy, 9/11, Iraq War, the South Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina), students and working reporters will gain insights into the critical components of contemporary journalism practices affecting news judgment, news gathering techniques, as well as legal and ethical issues. Trauma Journalism calls for the creation – through ongoing education – of a culture of caring among journalists worldwide." (Publisher description)
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"The South Lebanon conflict saw two decades of sustained resistance by the Lebanese to the Israeli occupation. The Lebanese media’s role in achieving liberation over this period is significant, through campaigns conducted to unify the Lebanese people against their foreign occupier and in support o
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f the Lebanese resistance in South Lebanon. This book investigates the culture and performance of Lebanese journalism in this setting. It is a story about journalism told by a journalist who is also using tools of scholarship and research to narrate her story and the story of her fellow journalists. Zahera Harb is also presenting here an alternative interpretation of propaganda under conditions of foreign occupation and the struggle against that occupation. She identifies the characteristics of ‘liberation propaganda’ through the coverage and experience of the two Lebanese TV stations Tele Liban and Al Manar within the historical, cultural, organisational and religious contexts in which they operated, and how these elements shaped their professional practice and their news values." (Publisher description)
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"When news organizations began covering the Intifada in 2000, activists formed a media-monitoring group called Palestine Media Watch to lobby journalists to interpret the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within an international law framework. Activists minimized their dissidence in relation to journalis
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m, systematically monitoring coverage over a period of several months, and meeting face-to-face with newsworkers. Drawing upon archives and interviews, I demonstrate that dissident media-monitoring groups play a small, but meaningful role in the newsmaking process. Dissidents can produce changes because they can formulate criticisms that newsworkers define as "journalistically useful." I define these criticisms to show how the definition facilitates and limits what can be accomplished via systematic monitoring, and suggest alternative dissident media strategies." (Abstract)
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"The chronic uncertainty for journalists and editors in carrying out their professional work in Colombia has many sources and has been serious for decades. Currently – besides indicators of extreme physical violence (such as daily attacks, abuse, kidnappings and murders) – problem areas are stro
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ngly marking journalistic work in Colombia that are often neglected in the international discussion, such as inadequate training offerings, unsatisfactory infrastructure in the workplace, precarious wage situations, lack of independence in relationship to editors and a poorly taught understanding of professional ethics. These structural problems produce qualitative deficiencies – especially in conflict reportage. But instead of stagnation, change is occurring. Colombian journalists are revising their self-image, at the same time developing a problem consciousness in their own work, and are actively trying to correct the deficiencies." (Abstract)
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"This article analyzes the way the Colombian conflict is represented in Colombian and international qualitative independent opinion articles and their influence on readers' understanding of the conflict. In Colombia there are independent journalists, but according to this research, they are victims
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of polarization and for this reason support the war, although without a conscious intention to do so. Nevertheless, with the help of international qualitative media it would be possible to reorient Colombian journalism to journalism pro peace. This research suggests that Colombian journalism must and can be reoriented to a more proactive approach. The results of this experiment are encouraging, and perhaps if they were introduced into praxis, they would provide an opportunity for a country that desperately needs peace." (Abstract)
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"The monitoring of Iraqi media reveals that inflammatory coverage does not necessarily consist of a direct call to violence, but instead takes the form of indirect or coded terminology that still has dangerous potential to foment conflict. Current regulatory and self-regulatory efforts designed to p
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revent media incitement to violence have, thus far, been insufficient. Lessons learned from post-conflict Bosnia, Kosovo and Sri Lanka can assist Iraqis in creating their own legal and self-regulatory mechanisms to limit inflammatory media coverage. There are a wide range of measures to mitigate inflammatory media coverage, including targeted training for media and government officials, broad support for a professional code of conduct, a full review of existing legislation relating to incitement, and the creation of a lexicon of inflammatory terms with guidelines for the proper use of these terms." (Abstract)
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"La cobertura mediática de lo sucedido en el departamento boliviano de Pando sobre la masacre de campesinos afines al gobierno, ejemplifica una tendencia mucho mayor, relacionada con el papel desempeñado por los medios de comunicación durante la polarización política vivida en Bolivia entre el
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2004 y el 2009. En este periodo una gran mayoría de los mass media bolivianos reflejaron la situación de polarización política adoptando una postura clara en el conflicto. Por un lado, los medios de comunicación privados adoptaron una postura política opuesta al gobierno de Morales, y por otro los medios estatales y comunitarios, que se perfilaron como partidarios del gobierno. Esto llevó a una situación de manipulación de la información, en la que los medios privados, especialmente televisivos, difundían una versión de la realidad que favorecía a los partidos políticos y movimientos cívicos y sociales oponentes al gobierno, mientras que los medios estatales difundían una versión que favorecía al gobierno de Morales. Consecuencia de esto fue que la opinión pública fue dejada a las expensas de lo que los medios de comunicación, en base a su propia postura política, decidían (des)informar (Mayorga 2009:9, 17)." (Resumen)
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"Since Galtung (1998) and Kempf (1996) outlined their first ideas of an alternative to conventional war reporting, their model(s) of “Peace Journalism” stimulated a broad debate among peace researchers and journalists, practical thought about how to achieve this type of journalism, and a large b
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ody of basic theoretical and empirical research. How the concept of peace journalism developed in the course of these studies is documented in the present book which contains a collection of papers from the years 1997-2009 that previously were only available in German, in hard to find sources and/or in electronic form." (Publisher description)
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"This study presents definitive evidence that news coverage in Cyprus does not contribute to peace building. In light of the renewed negotiations in Cyprus for reunification, the Cypriot media should engage in responsible reporting. It is of utmost importance that Peace Journalism is introduced and
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supported in Cyprus now. There is a prevailing perception among journalists that as “I write the report, I don’t care about the rest” or “My business is news reporting, don’t put additional burdens on my shoulders.” Traditional journalists should first of all accept the fact that their practice of news reporting is problematic. It is not possible to come up with a solution to a problem without first acknowledging that there is a problem. Many journalists do not bother allowing room for statements of the parties facing incrimination in a news story, nor do they bother about enriching their news sources. Likewise, most journalists abide by state and government oriented news reporting, thus only considering the statements made by state authorities as stories having news value. They tend to report only the apparent or visible parts of a story or the action itself. In other words, most do not make an effort to do process-based and investigative reporting that also reveal the invisible parts of the story. Doing research and seeking to uncover the invisible entails arduous work and takes time." (Conclusion, page 93-94)
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"The report examines how authorities and humanitarian and aid organizations can best balance the opportunities and challenges of exploiting different technologies at the key stages on the timeline of crisis—early warning and preparedness, immediate humanitarian relief, and reconstruction and long-
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term development." (Executive summary)
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"Providing counseling for reporters who have witnessed some of the worst things that can happen to humanity – with no tools to handle the emotional shock – was identified as one of the most imminent and crucial needs for support to Kenyan media practitioners in the aftermath of the disputed Dece
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mber 2007 presidential election. An unprecedented wave of politically motivated violence was triggered when the Electoral Commission of Kenya declared President Mwai Kibaki winner of the presidential election. More than 1,000 Kenyans were killed and over 500,000 displaced. [...]
On this background, IMS decided to engage in a post-election violence trauma counseling project in close cooperation with the Kenya Association of Photographers, Illustrators and Designers (KAPIDE), Kenya Correspondents’ Association (KCA) and Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ). Under the theme: 'Healing the messenger – Post-election trauma counseling for Kenyan Journalists', trauma counseling was provided for a total of 150 journalists and photographers in five different locations. The sessions were conducted by leading Kenyan psychiatrist and expert in disaster management, Dr. Sobbie Mulindi, and a rapid response team from the Kenyatta National Hospital. This booklet offers insights into the experiences the journalists went through as told by themselves during the counseling sessions. All accounts reproduced in this handbook conceal the identity of the journalists to respect wishes for anonymity and the continued feeling of trauma and sensitivity characterizing the post-election situation in Kenya. The booklet also provides guidance to recognizing and dealing with trauma as elaborated and presented by Dr. Sobbie Mulindi and his team." (Preface)
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"The problem of post-election violence seems to be ever-more present as complexities of nation-building and democratic development arise. This report deals with some relevant questions. It is based on the outcome of discussions at a December 2008 workshop organized in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia [...] Our
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objective was to examine the role of the media in the aftermath of competitive elections. The workshop provided the opportunity to explore the election experiences of Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Somaliland, Tanzania and Sudan in a comparative framework. The focus was on understanding why election violence occurred after some elections, what the role of the media was in either exacerbating or resolving disputes, and what this suggests about the broader political project and the state of the media in the countries under examination." (Executive summary)
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