At Palau Wave Radio, with energetic host Jennifer Sugiyama

"You Have a Face Made for Radio"
These were the exact words spoken to me by a snarky professor during my college years. Despite this (or perhaps because of it), I've always loved radio. As I told my trainees here in Palau today, radio was my first professional kiss.

It was with great excitement, then, that I accepted an invitation to appear on Jennifer Sugiyama's talk show this afternoon on Palau Wave Radio. A recording of the program can be found here. 

She began the show by kindly listing the sponsors* of the project I'm conducting here and previously in Guam. (See previous posts below). Jennifer is a perceptive and lively interviewer, and our chat was interesting (or, as interesting as it could be with me as a guest).

I was fascinated by her question about whether journalists should publicize that a death was by suicide. Jennifer said this is a common practice here. While avoiding telling my Palauan colleagues what to do, I said that I would never provide the detail that a death was suicide, and that to do so can re-victimize the family of the deceased. (It's different with celebrities, but we didn't get into that). Then, we discussed disinformation, peace journalism, and how to best engage young reporters.

Thanks, Jennifer and Palau Wave Radio, for the platform, and reminder that, whatever my face may look like, I still love radio.

Next week: A wrap up of my Palau-Guam peace journalism project for the East-West Center.

*Sponsors: The East-West Center, Glimpses Media, Sentry Hospitality, Wyndham Garden Hotel Guam, Subway Restaurants, United Airlines, the University of Guam, Tumon Sands Plaza, Chili's Grill and Bar, GFS Group, the Embassy of the United States of America in Palau, the Palasia Hotel Palau, the Palau Ministry of State, Office of the President of Palau, Sam's Tours, and Surangel & Sons.

East-West Center media workshop, Wyndham Garden Hotel, Guam

Guam communications pros, students engage at workshops
One of the challenging, and fun, aspects of teaching peace journalism around the world is learning about if and how its principles can be applied in different environments. Here in Guam, I’ve learned that PJ is especially applicable because of the unique challenges in this tropical paradise, a U.S. territory 3800 miles from the nearest U.S. state, Hawaii.

In my PJ session, one of five workshops I conducted here, I introduced the principles of peace journalism, and presented my ideas on how they might apply to journalism in Guam. These ideas include applying PJ to reporting about:

1. Climate change challenges, solutions (Human impact; root causes; potential to stir conflict; accountability)
2. Militarization. The U.S. military has a large presence here, hosting naval and air force bases and over 11,000 personnel. (Human impact; economic impact, especially on marginalized populations, cultural impact--a point also emphasized by a seminar attendee; Chamarro (local indigenous) voices; peace perspectives)
3. Foster dialogue, community (Between locals and military; different communities)
4. Poverty and social exclusion (Voices of the marginalized—problems and solutions)
6. Cross border reporting, across communities or islands (on climate, resource management, fishing, geopolitics).

The participants, journalists mixed with corporate and U.S. military public relations/public affairs professionals, agreed with these possible applications, and added a few of their own. These include using peace journalism to report about drug interdiction and recovery (reporting using the voices of those needing treatment and those recovered); and on how U.S. military construction has impacted local archeology and disturbed artifacts at indigenous cultural sites.

We also had a robust discussion about images, and whether it’s okay to use bloody, horrifying images. Several journalists noted that, due to the close knit community culture here, the use of such images would be taboo. I added that community standards vary greatly worldwide about using such images. I’ve seen horrifyingly graphic crime scene images in Mexican media, for example.

Workshop at Univ. of Guam
(Photo by Thelma Rogers)

In my other sessions, I met professional journalists and PR practitioners to discuss writing for social media, journalism and disinformation, and navigating disinformation as a PR professional. 

On my last full day in Guam, I met with students at the University of Guam, one of the generous sponsors* of my trip here. The students were active, inquisitive participants in my presentation about peace journalism and ethics. I got lots of difficult “is this ethical?” questions, and mostly passed the inquiries back to the students, noting that so much of what is considered ethical is culturally determined. Our discussion about images mirrored those I had with professional journalists. The students reiterated that in Guam, there is a greater sensitivity to gory, disturbing images because of the closeness of the community—of the small town feel here.

My trip thus far has been exhilarating. I have been met with inquiring minds and open hearts.

Part two of my visit to the islands begins later today with workshops here in Palau, where I arrived early this morning. Stay tuned for details.

*Sponsors: The East-West Center, Glimpses Media, Sentry Hospitality, Wyndham Garden Hotel Guam, Subway Restaurants, United Airlines, the University of Guam, Tumon Sands Plaza, Chili's Grill and Bar, GFS Group, the Embassy of the United States of America in Palau, the Palasia Hotel Palau, the Palau Ministry of State, Office of the President of Palau, Sam's Tours, and Surangel & Sons.

Engaging students at Univ. of Guam
(Photo by Thelma Rogers)

Palau!

It's a tough job, but....
In my peace journalism travels, I’ve been privileged to travel to 34 countries and territories, along the way meeting diverse journalists and experiencing local culture and food. Admittedly, some of these 34 countries don't provide much bucolic travel brochure material. However, that’s not the case with destinations #35 and #36.

I leave tomorrow for Guam, and will continue onwards to Palau—both staggeringly beautiful, culturally rich locales. It’s going to be hard to concentrate on my teaching when I know that world-class beaches, invigorating hikes, cultural sites, and fresh seafood are at my fingertips. But I promise to do my best to focus on my sessions for journalists, students, and military and embassy/government public affairs professionals. I’m teaching a wide variety of workshops, including peace journalism, combating disinformation, journalism ethics, and writing for social media. I’ve had fun planning for these sessions, which harken back to my 27 years in front of university classrooms.

This teaching tour is an important way for the East-WestCenter (EWC), where I work as a program coordinator, to reach out to journalists in the Pacific Islands region. The local sponsors* of my visit to Guam and Palau and I hope this series of workshops plants the seeds for future collaborative programming between EWC, journalists, and media organizations in the Pacific.

Stay tuned to this page for details on my sessions which begin next week. I’ll do what I can to avoid posting too many breathtakingly gorgeous photos.

*Sponsors: The East-West Center, Glimpses Media, Sentry Hospitality, Wyndham Garden Hotel Guam, Subway Restaurants, United Airlines, the University of Guam, Tumon Sands Plaza, Chili's Grill and Bar, GFS Group, the Embassy of the United States of America in Palau, the Palasia Hotel Palau, the Palau Ministry of State, Office of the President of Palau, and Surangel & Sons.

Guam!

Study: Newspapers neutral about nuclear weapons
A recent study looking at Ukraine-Russia war coverage in three international newspapers showed that when discussing nuclear weapons, The New York Times, The Guardian (UK), and the Global Times (China)  “mainly adopted a neutral tone toward nuclear weapons while emphasizing systemic and operational values.” The study said that “their news coverage did not vigorously criticize Russia’s nuclear threats” even though “they all reported that Russia’s adjustments to its national nuclear forces were on high alert and its nuclear military exercises.”

From a peace journalism perspective, these findings are alarming. 

                                               AI generated image

Emphasizing “systemic and operational values” of nuclear weapons instead of the weapons’ moral repugnancy is hardly peace journalism that gives society a chance to value non-violent responses to conflict. Instead, sterile discussions of nuclear hardware normalize these weapons, and more broadly, the militarization that frames nuclear escalation. 

Peace journalism instead would give at least comparable coverage to the moral and ethical aspects of using these weapons, constantly reminding the reader of the armageddon that will ensue if they’re ever used. Nuclear weapons must never be normalized. Instead of this “operational and systemic” coverage, a peace journalist would explore solutions to both underlying conficts, and to the proliferation of nuclear weapons themselves. 

PJ reporting could also include bridge-building reporting that rejects ‘us vs. them’ models while instead seeking common ground. In a world saturated with nuclear weapons, the common ground should be easy to find: if these weapons are used, our world and everything in it is destroyed.

The study by authors Yu Guo, Xiubin Duan, and Xiaodong Yang also found that two of the papers (The New York Times and Global Times) portrayed the Russia-Ukraine war using war journalism frames, whereas  the Guardian used more peace journalism framing. The Guardian’s PJ framing manifested itself with coverage that highlighted “the war’s invisible impacts and multifaceted interests,” leading to opportunities to “foster positive dialog between conflicting parties," according to the authors. 

This study, Valuing or devaluing nuclear weapons in the war journalism: a cross-national comparative content analysis of news coverage during the Russian war in Ukraine, was published in the Humanities and Social Sciences Communications journal.

 

 

(Image Source: Shared Future News)

Event explores intersection of peace, photography
A recent article from one of my favorite peace and media sites, Shared Future News, has renewed my interest regarding the role of images in peacebuilding and peace journalism.

The article by SFN editor Allan Leonard titled “Peace Photography: Supporting Conflict Transformation” discusses a recent online session that explored the “intersection of photography and peace. The event brought together a range of experts and practitioners to discuss how photography can foster cultures of peace in different contexts.” The online session analyzed “how photography can contribute to the recovery and transformation of conflict” including making complex histories more accessible, preserving a collective memory, and fostering dialogue and reconciliation.

On the last point, the article describes presenter Jacques Nkinzingabo who spoke about his work at the Kigali Center for Photography  in Rwanda. Nkinzingabo told the gathering that “photography can play a role to bring people together with dialogues within the community on different types of conversation and issues around them.” 

Nkinzingabo’s work (The Home Stay Exhibitions) is striking. Equally impactful is another stellar example of photography as a tool of reconciliation from the New York Times. In 2014, 20 years after the Rwandan genocide, the Times published “Portraits of Reconciliation,” a powerful, chilling photo essay that pictures perpetrators and victims side by side.  

Certainly, the principles discussed in the webinar are aligned with peace journalism. One PJ characteristic advises,  “Peace journalists thoughtfully select the images they use, understanding that they can misrepresent an event, exacerbate an already dire situation, and re-traumatize those who have suffered.” Indeed, in the many peace journalism workshops I’ve taught (34 countries and counting!), we always discuss images, and analyze the appropriateness of using bloody images, for example. Are they needed to tell the story, or are they simply sensational click-bait? I never advise not to use gory or gruesome images, but caution my trainees to see the photo through the eyes of a victim or her family.

In my seminars, we also discuss how images can also misrepresent events. For example, if there are 1000 protesters, and 998 of them are peaceful, should the most prominent images from the protest be two violent individuals clashing with police? Yes, this violence did occur, but do images of that violence that truly reflect the 99.8% peaceful nature of the protest?

Leonard’s article about the online session concludes, “The idea of peace photography is still an emerging concept, but it is already making a significant impact…As the session concluded, the collective sentiment seemed to be that peace photography is not just an art form but a practice deeply embedded in ethical care, community involvement, and proactive engagement.” 

To learn more, you can download a free copy of the thought-provoking guide, “Peace Photography: A Guide” here.