Greater KC Peacebuilding Conference starts Thursday
Mark your calendars for a terrific event: This Thursday, Friday, and Saturday is the annual Greater Kansas City Peacebuilding Conference. On Friday from 1-4pm at Park University, we're discussing human rights journalism Mary Sanchez, Lewis Diuguid, Bette Tate-Beaver, Sarah Margon from the Open Society Foundation, and journalist Kathryn Johnston from Northern Ireland.

For details about the conference, listen to the Danny Clinkscale podcast about the event and about peace journalism generally--https://tinyurl.com/y2k6hg4k .

You can register for free for the conference at https://secure.touchnet.com/C20110_ustores/web/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTID=19802 .
We ask that you register especially for Saturday, since a free lunch is provided.

A future for PJ in Northern Ireland? It depends on who you ask

(Belfast, Northern Ireland)-Here at Belfast Metropolitan College, there is some disagreement about the future of peace journalism.

The bright, talkative students in Prof. John Coulter’s journalism class seem to believe that PJ is a “sensible” solution for Northern Irish media. One student said he and his generation are growing weary of what he called “orange and green,” us vs. them style reporting. Another said peace journalism is possible, but that a transition will be extremely slow—generational, in fact. Their student peers in Coleraine agreed with this assessment.

Prof. Coulter, himself a former war journalist during the Troubles, showed off some of his reporting which he characterized as traditional. This included sensational stories like the one headlined, “Vigilantes plan bomb blitz.” Coulter said PJ is not possible “when you have reporters like me...who grew up with the Troubles. I can not make the transition” to peace journalism, he said.

Instead, Coulter is promoting what he calls legacy journalism, in which senior journalists would revisit their reporting from decades ago and “make what we did relevant.” He tossed out the idea of rewriting one of his stories in a peace journalism style. I encouraged him to do this.

The students and I also discussed trauma reporting. We were collectively encouraged that most of the reporting about the recent trauma of the murder of journalist Lyra Kckee was responsible, and followed the guidelines laid out by the National Union of Journalists—NUJ. (See https://victimsandthepast.org/outputs/media-training-workshops/ )


I look forward to continuing our work in Northern Ireland next March. My project, sponsored by the US Embassy London and the US Consulate Belfast, will continue with workshops that concentrate on trauma journalism.

PJ and language: What exactly is a massacre?

(Coleraine, Northern Ireland) The most lively discussion yesterday at Ulster University (UU) in Coleraine centered around language, and specifically the word “massacre.”

I was in Coleraine visiting with UU master’s in journalism students as part of an ongoing peace journalism project in Northern Ireland sponsored by the US Embassy-London/US consulate Belfast.

One bright, skeptical student (my favorite kind) said he understood avoiding inflammatory language when reporting controversy. But he believed that using terms like “massacre” is okay in stories like school shootings since “no one is on the shooter’s side.”

At UU-Coleraine. Photo by Allan Leonardrd

Another articulate student said he thinks it’s acceptable to manipulate words and emotions in a story like a school shooting if it can stir people into action.

I disagreed with both students.

To the first student, I commented that in instances like mass shootings, the point of PJ more about rejecting subjectivity and avoiding sensationalism. “Massacre” is an imprecise term—how many killed, exactly, constitutes a “massacre?” The term also starts us down a slippery slope towards sensationalism. If “massacre” is okay, then what’s next—“bloody slaughter?” Present the facts, and let the reader decide if a massacre occurred, I said.

As for the second student who wants to stir people into action, I asked, when is it okay for journalists to feed people’s emotions? Who decides? As journalist Allan Leonard (who attended the session) pointed out, it’s ironic that peace journalism is often criticized for not being objective, yet in this instance it’s a traditional journalist who is willing to cross the line into advocacy.


I appreciated the thoughtful discussion (one of the best I’ve had) and the invitation by Prof. Milne Roundtree to come to UU. I look forward to my next visit to Coleraine.