Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Reject inflammatory "concentration camp" rhetoric
A recent article on Poynter.org has ignited a debate about whether World War II Japanese-American detention centers should be called concentration camps.

Poynter ‘s Doris Truong writes, “For far too long, the WWII detention has been euphemistically
referred to as internment. With the 78th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 upon us, we as journalists must push for clearer language. Advocacy groups including Densho say what happened during the war equaled U.S.-run concentration camps. It’s notable that Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose order altered the lives of thousands of families, referred to the sites as concentration camps. Many Americans associate concentration camps only with Nazis, but any facility housing large numbers of a persecuted group meets the definition.”

No one would argue about the dictionary definition of concentration camps, but as journalists we must consider the connotations of terms, their baggage and accepted meanings, as we decide their appropriateness. Concentration camps, to most, mean not just detention, but places where people are tortured and systematically murdered. The reprehensible detention of Japanese-Americans during WWII does not rise to this level.

In fact, I would argue that calling these facilities concentration camps is needlessly inflammatory, leading to debates over semantics instead of more substantive discussions about what happened and how to prevent it from ever happening again.

This isn’t the first time the term concentration camps has been misapplied.

In an LA Times column June 9, 2019, Jonathan Katz wrote that Donald Trump’s immigrant detention centers should also be called concentration camps. Again, I consider such a label misleading and inflammatory. In my blog about Katz' column, I wrote, “Although the term concentration camp does technically describe Trump’s immigration detention facilities, the smoke created by the term obscures what’s going on inside these facilities. There is a technical distinction between concentration and death camps, but this distinction is pragmatically irrelevant—in the public’s view, they are one in the same.”

My suggestion—avoid any inflammatory, misleading hyperbole that uses the label concentration camp.

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Call for papers-The Peace Journalist
The Peace Journalist magazine is seeking submissions for our April, 2020 edition.

The Peace Journalist is a semi-annual publication (print and .pdf) of the Center for Global Peace Journalism at Park University in Parkville, Missouri. The Peace Journalist is dedicated to disseminating news and information for and about teachers, students, and practitioners of peace and conflict sensitive journalism.

Submissions are welcome from all. We seek submissions of 500-1100 words about peace media, peace and conflict sensitive journalism projects, and research into peace journalism and media and conflict.

Please submit your article via email to steve.youngblood@park.edu.

Your article must have a strong media/peace and conflict sensitive journalism angle. The Peace Journalist does not run general articles about peace initiatives or projects.

The submission deadline is March 2. However, given the limited space available in this issue, it’s advisable to submit your article early.

To see copies of the most recent Peace Journalist, and to peruse past issues, go to:
https://www.park.edu/academics/explore-majors-programs/peace-studies-minor/center-global-peace-journalism-2/peace-journalist/

Thank you in advance for your interest in the Peace Journalist.