Webinar explores media, Covid-19, and peace
It’s difficult to assess the impact of Covid-19 on news media since the pandemic is ongoing. However, several key trends are emerging.
I discussed these pandemic media impacts during today’s “Building Peace and Covid” webinar sponsored by the World Forum for Peace, the Schengen Peace Foundation, and the Luxembourg Peace Prize. A recording of the event will be posted soon at the LPP's website.
I highlighted three Covid-19 impacts: the economic blow the pandemic has inflicted on the media; how Covid-19 is being used by authoritarian regimes as an excuse to censor and control media; and the way the pandemic has highlighted and perhaps stoked partisan media in the U.S.
Economically, the New York Times estimates that 38,000 news media jobs have been lost due to advertising revenue lost as a result of the pandemic. Examples of layoffs and furloughs include the Cleveland Plain Dealer, The New Orleans Times-Picayune, The Denver Post, Buzzfeed, Conde Naste, Gannett, and so on. In an article in the Guardian, Penny Abernathy, the Knight chair in journalism and digital media economics at the University of North Carolina, predicted “there’ll be hundreds, not dozens” of media closures in what she calls “an extinction-level event.”
For my second point, I discussed how journalists in Russia, Niger, Egypt, Venezuela, Iran, and elsewhere have been threatened and detained for reporting that challenged official narratives and statistics on Covid-19. Further, the pandemic has been used as an excuse by authoritarian regimes in Bosnia, Hungary, Russia, and elsewhere to crack down on journalism organizations for spreading “fake news,” which in most instances means reporting anything the government dislikes.
Finally, I discussed how Covid-19 has fueled already-roaring partisan flames in the U.S. media. The chart pictured shows just a few examples of how the pandemic has been covered in dramatically different ways by pro and anti-Trump media. I went on to show research that demonstrates the impact of this coverage on the public. Republicans surveyed tend to believe the crisis has been exaggerated, and are more comfortable with going to the barber or sending their kids to daycare than their Democratic counterparts. One example: Seventy percent of Republicans compared to just five percent of Democrats believe it’s safe to dine out, according to a poll from CNBC and Change Research released earlier this month.
Other webinar presenters included Steve Killelea, founder and director of the Institute of Economics and Peace. He discussed via a submitted video the economics of the crisis, and predicted a full economic recovery won’t happen until 2022. Killelea also expressed his concern about the pandemic’s impact on the developing world, where countries will have to take on more debt, or perhaps default on the debt they have. He’s also concerned about richer countries re-directing international development aid to domestic purposes.
Libby Liu, CEO of the Open Technology Fund, spoke about “Open and Free Internet, Our Lifeline.” She talked about crackdowns on Internet free speech, citing the statistic that of the 3.8 billion people with Internet access worldwide, 71% live in countries where citizens have been arrested for posting materials online. Liu discussed how her initiative, the Open Technology Fund, is designed to promote Internet access, privacy, awareness of threats, and security from online dangers.
Other speakers included Dr. Scilla Elworthy, Founder and Peace Direct and author of “Business Plan for Peace” and “The Mighty Heart,” Francois Carbon, Transatlantic Dialogue conference chair, and Helmy Abouleish, CEO of SEKEM, a sustainable development NGO in Egypt, who discussed, “The Economy of Love.”
Four of the webinar presenters are 2020 Luxembourg Peace Prize laureates--Carbon (and the Transatlantic Dialogue conference he organizes), Elworthy, Lui, and myself. Abouleish and Killelea were former LPP winners. It was an honor to present alongside these outstanding peacebuilders.
It’s difficult to assess the impact of Covid-19 on news media since the pandemic is ongoing. However, several key trends are emerging.
I discussed these pandemic media impacts during today’s “Building Peace and Covid” webinar sponsored by the World Forum for Peace, the Schengen Peace Foundation, and the Luxembourg Peace Prize. A recording of the event will be posted soon at the LPP's website.
 |
| Building Peace and Covid webinar |
I highlighted three Covid-19 impacts: the economic blow the pandemic has inflicted on the media; how Covid-19 is being used by authoritarian regimes as an excuse to censor and control media; and the way the pandemic has highlighted and perhaps stoked partisan media in the U.S.
Economically, the New York Times estimates that 38,000 news media jobs have been lost due to advertising revenue lost as a result of the pandemic. Examples of layoffs and furloughs include the Cleveland Plain Dealer, The New Orleans Times-Picayune, The Denver Post, Buzzfeed, Conde Naste, Gannett, and so on. In an article in the Guardian, Penny Abernathy, the Knight chair in journalism and digital media economics at the University of North Carolina, predicted “there’ll be hundreds, not dozens” of media closures in what she calls “an extinction-level event.”
For my second point, I discussed how journalists in Russia, Niger, Egypt, Venezuela, Iran, and elsewhere have been threatened and detained for reporting that challenged official narratives and statistics on Covid-19. Further, the pandemic has been used as an excuse by authoritarian regimes in Bosnia, Hungary, Russia, and elsewhere to crack down on journalism organizations for spreading “fake news,” which in most instances means reporting anything the government dislikes.
Finally, I discussed how Covid-19 has fueled already-roaring partisan flames in the U.S. media. The chart pictured shows just a few examples of how the pandemic has been covered in dramatically different ways by pro and anti-Trump media. I went on to show research that demonstrates the impact of this coverage on the public. Republicans surveyed tend to believe the crisis has been exaggerated, and are more comfortable with going to the barber or sending their kids to daycare than their Democratic counterparts. One example: Seventy percent of Republicans compared to just five percent of Democrats believe it’s safe to dine out, according to a poll from CNBC and Change Research released earlier this month.
Other webinar presenters included Steve Killelea, founder and director of the Institute of Economics and Peace. He discussed via a submitted video the economics of the crisis, and predicted a full economic recovery won’t happen until 2022. Killelea also expressed his concern about the pandemic’s impact on the developing world, where countries will have to take on more debt, or perhaps default on the debt they have. He’s also concerned about richer countries re-directing international development aid to domestic purposes.
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| Steve Killelea, Inst. of Economics and Peace |
Libby Liu, CEO of the Open Technology Fund, spoke about “Open and Free Internet, Our Lifeline.” She talked about crackdowns on Internet free speech, citing the statistic that of the 3.8 billion people with Internet access worldwide, 71% live in countries where citizens have been arrested for posting materials online. Liu discussed how her initiative, the Open Technology Fund, is designed to promote Internet access, privacy, awareness of threats, and security from online dangers.
Other speakers included Dr. Scilla Elworthy, Founder and Peace Direct and author of “Business Plan for Peace” and “The Mighty Heart,” Francois Carbon, Transatlantic Dialogue conference chair, and Helmy Abouleish, CEO of SEKEM, a sustainable development NGO in Egypt, who discussed, “The Economy of Love.”
Four of the webinar presenters are 2020 Luxembourg Peace Prize laureates--Carbon (and the Transatlantic Dialogue conference he organizes), Elworthy, Lui, and myself. Abouleish and Killelea were former LPP winners. It was an honor to present alongside these outstanding peacebuilders.
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