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.