02-03-2010
UNESCO has published Conflict-Sensitive Reporting: State of the Art; A Course for Journalists and Journalism Educators. Written by Ross Howard, who teaches journalism at Langara College in Canada and is President of the non-profit Media&Democracy Group, the study provides guidance to a better understanding of conflict and conflict resolution, and of the news media’s role.
This curriculum comes at a time when the news media, with its new technologies and wider reach, is increasingly a target for misinformation, manipulation or suppression by interests seeking to profit from conflict. The central concept of Conflict-Sensitive Reporting is that violent conflict attracts intense news media attention that requires greater analytical depth and skills to report on it, without contributing to further violence or overlooking peace-building opportunities.
The intention is to make reporting on conflict more insightful, more comprehensive and thus more influential, since being comprehensive includes making clearer the possibilities of resolving conflict rather than perpetuating it. Conflict-sensitive reporting contributes to reconciliation and peace building.
This sensitization to the role and responsibility of reporting on conflict represents an expansion of journalism practices but not a radical change. It is better reporting. It is an ethical and professional approach, enabling citizens to make better-informed choices in their own interests. The curriculum is a preliminary sensitization, an introduction to the substantive field of conflict analysis and conflict resolution that has developed over more than a half-century.
The publication is available online
URL ;- http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=29585&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
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