Engendering Peace Journalism

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Engendering Peace Journalism

• A presentation at the 3rd
• Women Making Air Waves of Peace
• NDFCAI-WED Training Center
• Cotabato City
• Thursday, July 5, 2007
• by Lina Sagaral Reyes
• Mindanao Women Writers (Min-WoW), Inc.

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Engendering Peace Journalism

• 1.a What is peace and conflict journalism/conflict
  -sensitive reportage
• 1.b Characteristics of war journalism
• 1.c. Characteristics of peace journalism
• 1.d. From war to peace journalism, an exercise
• 2.a.What do we mean by engendering peace and
  conflict coverage?
• 2.b.What are the practical strategies to engender
  peace and conflict reportage?
• 2.c.A group exercise on engendering peace and
  conflict reportage

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Peace Journalism(according to Lynch and
McGoldrick)

• 1.) Journalists, including editors and reporters,
  choose certain stories they report or write and
  how to report or write them

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Peace Journalism

• 2. Because of the kind of stories they produce
  and how they are produced, readers and listeners
  are then given opportunities to consider and
  value non-violent responses to conflict

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War/Violence Journalism

• Johann Galtung observed Western mainstream media
  during the last 100 years is focused mostly on
  war reportage which is characterized by
  sensationalism and violence

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War Journalisms four (4) characteristics/elemen
ts

• War/Violence-Orientated
• Propaganda-Orientated
• Elite-Orientated
• Victory-Orientated

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War-Orientated

• See them /the other as the problem
• Reactive, waits till violence erupts before
  reporting
• Focuses only on two parties (enemies at war)

• Demonizes enemies
• Focuses only on visible effects of conflict
• Focuses only on the violence

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War-Orientated

• It is not difficult to find examples of
  war-orientated stories because they abound. Can
  you think of examples of War-Orientated Reportage
  from the materials you brought with you?
• Lets listen to a brief radio newscast (the
  killing of Untol Abdullah) from Action Radio
  NDBC Balita, 7 a.m. newscast, February 2, 2007,
  Malu Cadelina-Manar

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• Kinumpirma ni 6th Infantry Division
  spokesperson Col. Joselito Ando na patay na ang
  magsasakang si Untol Abdullah, tagapangasiwa ng
  sakahan ng Midsayap ABC president at councilor
  Edgar Ostique.
• Ayon kay Ando, dinukot ng tropang MILF 105th base
  kumander Jade si Abdullah noon pang January
  thirty-one, pasado alas- kuwatro ng hapon.

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• Humingi pa umano ng ransom money na
  twenty-thousand pesos ang grupo para sa kalayaan
  ng nasawing biktima. Gayun pa man kinabukasan, ay
  pinaslang ng grupo si Abdullah, pasado alas-onse
  ng umaga.
• Itinali ito sa puno ng mangga.Hinihinalaang
  pinahirapan hanggang sa masawi.

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• Napag-alamang hinihinalaang isang deep
  penetration agent si Abdullah kaya dinukot ng
  MILF troops at inimbistigahan....

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• Can we identify the elements of war-orientated
  reportage in the brief news broadcast on Untol
  Abdullah death?

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War reportage in newspapers

• Can you identify war reportage in the newspapers
  you have brought with you?

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Propaganda-Orientated

• Expose their untruths and help our cover-ups
• Do you have examples of radio newscast showing
  this kind of leaning towards propaganda?

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Elite-Orientated

• Focus on our suffering, on able-bodied elite
  males, being their mouthpiece
• Name their evil-doers
• Focus on elite peace makers, peace builders

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Elite-Orientated

• Do you have examples of elite-orientated reports?
  

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Victory/Defeat-Orientated

• Peace equals victory plus cease-fire
• Conceal other peace initiatives
• Focus on treaty
• Leave a finished war, return if old flares up ,
  or off to another war

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Peace Journalisms4 characteristics

• Peace Conflict-Orientated
• Truth-Orientated
• People-Orientated
• Solution-Orientated

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War Journalism Peace Journalism

• War Violence --------- Peace Conflict
• Propaganda --------- Truth
• Elite --------- Grassroots
• Victory Defeat --------- Solutions

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Peace and Conflict-Orientated

• Gives voice to many parties
• Humanizes both sides
• Focuses on the invisible effects of war violence
• Explores historical/cultural context and conflict
  analysis
• An example
• Note the difficulty in looking for best
  practice, model stories

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Truth-Orientated

• Expose all untruths on all sides
• Uncover all cover-ups
• an example of radio news cast
• story on kahos

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People/Grassroots-Orientated

• Focus on the sufferings on both sides
• Give names to all evil-doers
• Focus on grassroots peace-makers

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Solution-Orientated

• Peace equals non-violence and creativity
• Highlights peace initiatives, also to prevent
  more wars
• Focus on culture, the peaceful society
• Focus on the aftermath, reconstruction,
  reconciliation

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Peace Journalism Checklistaccording to
Indonesian Reporters

• Before you ask questions, listen and observe
• Be aware of hidden agenda and prejudices
• Paint a bigger picture without blame/put in
  context (separate module)
• Watch out for loaded language (separate module)
• Open up creative possibilities which may lead to
  healthy solutions

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Checklist (2)

• Broaden mainstream definitions of who and what is
  newsworthy so we do not marginalize any sector
• Recognize that a certain piece of news is part of
  a process and is not just a series of unrelated
  events and try to provide links
• Be aware of how you frame a story (separate
  module)

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Peace Journalism
War Journalism
The sliding scale The more space the
journalists find to report on the factors in
the right-hand column, the further the cursor
moves towards Peace Journalism. To create this
space often entails connecting and combining
elements from the left-hand column-- to hook
the readers or to provide an arresting top
line for a more process-oriented story
Issues of structural violence
Direct violence
Govt /rebel propaganda
Grassroots activism
Rights, freedoms, power imbalances
Terrorist plots
sectarianism
inequalities
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From war to peace journalism

• What suggestions would you have in rewriting the
  story on Untol Abdullah so that it becomes a
  piece of peace journalism?
• How do you make new a trite story of a long war?
  Is there a way to salvage the story?
• the story on Untol Abdullah (15 minutes)
• Share your New Stories

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Engendering Peace Journalism

• Do you have any idea how we could apply a gender
  perspective to conflict-sensitive
  reporting/journalism?
• What does this term engender mean to you? On a
  orange metacard write a word or phrase to express
  your understanding of this word?
• In a green meta card write how do you think you
  can engender peace journalism

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Engendering Peace Journalism orUsing Gender
Perspective to Conflict-Sensitive Reporting

• Gender is not just another word for women
• Instead it is the socially constructed
  differences between men and women which determine
  how we are perceived and how we are expected to
  behave as men and women

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Engendering Peace Journalism or Giving Gender
Perspective to Conflict-Sensitive ReportingWhat
Engendering is not just...

• Engendering peace reportage does not only mean
  bringing a womans voice into a story
• Engendering does not only mean finding a
  womans angle
• Engendering is not achieve by just assigning
  gender stories to a woman journalist

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Engendering Conflict-Reporting is a complex
process

• Women cannot automatically be expected to be
  sensitive to or interested in gender issues
• There are those who prefer themselves as
  journalists first and women next
• Men and women must be both sensitized and made
  aware of the importance of gender sensitivity in
  their work

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Engendering is a complex process (2)

• Engendering considers the focus, the language,
  the perspective and the analysis
• Essentials remain the basics accuracy, fairness
  and balance
• Valuing and making visible and audible the
  marginalized sectors and interests

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Engendering is a complex process (3)

• We have to be careful not to resort to reverse
  stereotyping in which we simply view women as
  passive victims, as sufferers
• We also need to report stories that reflect
  womens courage, leadership resilience and
  healing as agents of change and peace building
  
  
  

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She speaksWomens Voices on Peace and Conflict

• When women say they want peace, they dont imply
  just the absence of physical violence, but a
  system based on social security, equal
  opportunities, access to resources, distribution,
  economic rights and accountability -- Ashina
  Kaul Bhatia, WFS-New Delhi, as quoted in Gender,
  Conflict and Journalism

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She speaks (2)

• Conflict does not only mean wars between or
  within countries, but also ethnic/communal
  strife, gender violence and poverty

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She speaks(2)

• My peace is when my children and my body are
  secure
• Global security should be radically defined to
  embrace the human dimension one that includes
  lives free of violence - including violence
  against women -- and HIV/AIDS as HIV/AIDS feasts
  on gender inequality and war.

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She speaks (3)

• For many women the frontline is the home
  (reference here)
• ...the argument is not that womens innocence is
  universal or that women are inherently more
  peaceful or men inherently more warlike.
• Engendering needs to take into account womens
  heightened experience of violence and trauma
  during periods of conflict, both physical and
  psychological, both within the home and outside.

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Untold Stories at the 2nd WMAWfP in Zambo

• Murder, rape and wife battering (forms of
  domestic gender violence) perpetrated by a
  husband who came home from the war in Jolo
• The experience of a female rebel in Zamboanga de
  Sibugay
• The life story of a woman community peacemaker in
  Pagadian

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Exercise, Part OneHave You A Story to Tell?
(30mins)

• Divide the group into teams of 3-5
• In each team, the members must think of one
  untold story on conflict in her community which
  can be told with a gender perspective/lens (2-3
  minutes)
• The team members will take turn in sharing their
  stories (3 minutes each x 5 women 15 minutes)
• After all team members have told their stories,
  the summaries of the stories will be listed down
  on a piece of manila paper. (5 minutes)
• The team will choose someone to share the list of
  stories with the bigger group in a plenary
  session(5 mins each x 3 teams 15 minutes)

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Reporting Tips on the Untold Stories

• Murder, rape /domestic violence
• - Be careful about use of words like victim.
  Should you use it?
• Be extra sensitive when you will interview the
  survivor and/or the assailant, other members of
  the family
• Challenge attempts to normalize or condone the
  crime
• Follow-up the case at the police station till to
  the court and even after the trial

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Exercise, Part 2How would you report the Untold
Stories?

• The teams will exchange lists of untold stories
  listed down on the manila paper
• The team will discuss reporting tips for each of
  the untold story on the other teams list(15
  mins)
• The tips will be listed on a sheet of manila
  paper using felt pens(5 mins)
• The list of tips will be reported/shared in the
  plenary (20 mins)

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Food for Thought

• If we consciously try to write about conflict
  from a gender perspective and consciously try to
  be conflict-sensitive, are we in danger of losing
  our neutrality as journalists, whtehr we are in
  mainstream or in the community media?
• What agenda has this kind of journalism?