Amid traumatic threat, seminar discusses trauma reporting

(DERRY AND BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND)-As we bumped elbows in greeting, an odd gesture done in lieu of hand-shaking, it occurred to me that the two trauma reporting seminars that we did last Thursday in Derry and Friday in Belfast may be the last such face-to-face seminars in Northern Ireland for weeks, even months, thanks to Covid-19.

At BelfastMet trauma reporting seminar
(Photo by Allan Leonard)

While attendance at the Derry event was low, the Belfast seminar at BelfastMet College’s E-3 Campus was well attended. Most of the Belfast attendees were BelfastMet students.

At the outset, I was worried that the minds of both the participants and attendees wouldn't be focused on the subject at hand, but instead on the Covid 19 virus. I know my attention seemed divided. However, the workshops’ energetic presenters and inquisitive attendees soon disabused me of this notion.

The first presenter, journalist Kathryn Johnston, talked about her murdered friend and reporting colleague Lyra McKee, and about how journalists continue to operate under threat in Northern Ireland. Johnston said McKee would “have been the first to look and those who shot her and ask why.” Later, Johnston would discuss the establishment of a bursary (scholarship/grant) in Lyra’s name to support young journalists engaged in depth reporting. Details about the bursary are still pending, she said.

Paul Gallagher, WAVE trauma centre (Photo by Allan Leonard)

Paul Gallagher, a Queen’s University lecturer, Ph.D. candidate, and survivor of “Troubles” violence that left him without the use of his legs, then discussed trauma and victims. He talked about how victims are not homogenous, and indeed the appropriateness of using the label “victim.” (Gallagher, who also works with the WAVE Trauma Centre, doesn’t mind being called a victim since “it doesn’t define me.”) He talked about how the clock stops on one’s previous life after a trauma, and how victims are often vulnerable and stigmatized. He led an interesting discussion about how journalists can exacerbate trauma, and what role, if any, journalists have in repairing trauma. Gallagher finished by sharing his tips for more responsible trauma reporting including validating individual experiences, helping to create a trauma-informed society, and two themes I would discuss later—giving victims back their voice, and countering dominant narratives about victims.

Peace journalism pioneer Dr. Jake Lynch from the University of Sydney discussed several concepts of peace, including justpeace, defined as a process of peaccebuilding that includes adaptive processes, structures, and practices grounded in relationships and characterized by low violence and high justice. He also discussed peacebulding gaps like the difficulty in transferring grassroots peacebuilding energy and ideas to decision-makers and elites higher up the food chain. Later, Lynch presented ideas about how media can structure itself to favor justpeace. He cited several examples from Northern Ireland showing media already doing this, including View magazine’s victims issue. Lynch finished by discussing media effects, and a study he led that demonstrated the efficacy of the peace journalism approach in creating societal opportunities for justpeace.

In a presentation on covering anniversaries and marches, journalist Alan Meban led a discussion about the phrases used in such coverage (flashpoints, sectarian, controversial), and shepherded an interesting critique of several stories, one of which discussed the anniversary of a “Troubles” bombing, while the other covered a gay pride parade using hateful, stereotyping language like “flamboyant.”

I presented on socially responsible trauma reporting, and shared with the crowd several pillars of such reporting. (See below)

Good student feedback at BelfastMet's E-3 Campus
(Photo by Allan Leonard)

Journalists and Shared Future News editor Allan Leonard showed the attendees many platforms that display more responsible trauma reporting coverage which offers counternarratives and the voice of the voiceless. These include Peace Direct, Café Babel, France 24 (FOCUS segments), NVTV from Northern Ireland, Northern Slant, and Shared Future News (https://sharedfuture.news/).

After the BelfastMet seminar, it dawned on me that, tragically, there will probably be more victims being created both in Northern Ireland and the world, and that our seminar, sadly, could not have been more timely. On this count, I fervently hope I’m wrong.

The Northern Ireland peace journalism project was sponsored by the US Embassy-London and the US Consulate-Belfast.

PILLARS OF RESPONSIBLE CONFLICT AND TRAUMA REPORTING—

Ask yourself these questions: What does the public need to know, and how much coverage is too much? When do reporters become obsessed with a story when the public is not? A community is more than a mass killing or disaster or conflict.

1. Always consider the impact of your reporting. Don’t gratuitously make things worse for the people whose stories you report, or for the general public. 

2. Accuracy is paramount. First rumors can be dramatic and exaggerated. Facts can be slippery in mid-crisis. Inaccurately quoting a victim can be traumatic. Check, double check, triple check facts.Make sure the person knows you will have to check the facts. Go back over the interview with them.

3. Journalists should thoughtfully select the images they use, understanding that they can misrepresent an event, exacerbate an already dire situation, and re-victimize those who have been traumatized.

4. Don’t prematurely jump on the “blame” bandwagon, or to conclusions, and consider the impact of “blame” reporting on traumatized victims and the public. Later, journalists should lead societal discussions about solutions (without advocating for any one solution).

5. Don’t intrude. The National Union of Journalists (UK) code of conduct says, a journalist “does nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest. Be honest and clear about what you are doing. Identify yourself.

6. Avoid inflammatory, sensational language that exacerbates or fuels conflict or trauma. Never embellish stories. 

7. Do your research so you know the background and be sensitive to contested narratives and language.

8. When reporting about conflict or trauma, journalists should give a voice to the vulnerable, marginalized voiceless in their societies—women, youth, minorities, the poor, etc.

9. Journalists should reject formulaic, stereotypical coverage and instead offer counternarratives about the trauma, its impact, and those affected.

--From: https://dartcenter.org/sites/default/files/DCE_JournoTraumaHandbook.pdf ; NUJ Trauma Reporting Handbook, and developed from principles of peace journalism by Steven Youngblood

PJ, ETHICS, AND MARTYRDOM IN N.I.

(Belfast, Northern Ireland)-I’ve had some interesting discussions about whether journalists should use the term “martyr,” but none so engaging as our interchange yesterday at the US Consulate.

In previous seminars in Kashmir and Beirut, journalists told me that they labeled anyone who died fighting Israelis or Indians a martyr. I told them that, to me, using this term puts gasoline on the fire and exacerbates tensions and divisions. 

Here in Belfast, the discussion centered around those who self identify as martyrs as they commit some heinous act like blowing themselves up. Should the press call them martyrs, since that’s what they call themselves? Several attendees said yes, that it’s journalists’ obligation to use people’s self identification. I’m not so sure, I said. What if the bomber called himself a hero? Should the press repeat that label?

We also had a vibrant talk about false equivalencies, and the pitfalls they pose for journalists. This topic is especially fraught here, given Northern Ireland’s history.

My presentation introduced peace journalism and reconciliation, and showed their connection to traditional journalism ethics. One participant was skeptical, saying that peace journalism “doesn’t exist” and is merely good journalism. I replied that PJ is grounded in good journalism, but is transcendent since it includes suggestions that media give a voice to the voiceless, discuss solutions, and offer counternarrative storytelling.

My visit here this week is sponsored by the U.S. Consulate and U.S. Embassy in London. It continues with two trauma reporting workshops on Thursday in Derry and Friday in Belfast.

SESSION CONSIDERS SOCIAL MEDIA IMPACT, FUTURE
(Belfast, Northern Ireland)-It was ironic, and poignant, that my first presentation in Belfast this month was at the Girdwood Community Hub, a former army barracks during the Troubles repurposed as a community center.

At the event sponsored by Belfast Metropolitan College, I spoke briefly about social media and peace journalism. I led off with an interesting stat, a poll showing that only 22% of Northern Irish trust social media. My message was that social media can better serve the public, and peace, using peace journalism principles.

In a vibrant discussion after my talk, the most difficult question thrown my way asked me to predict the future of social media. My “glass half empty” response was that social media will increasingly empower demagogues and authoritarian regimes. My “glass half full” response was that an increasingly media literate public will use social media as a tool to build bridges and facilitate dialogues for peace.

I was also asked to predict the 2016 US presidential election, which I did.

My presentation was part of a conference at BelfastMet that introduced participants, many of whom work with disadvantaged youth, to a program called Live Skills, which helps young people develop careers in fields using digital technologies (creative media, digital art and design, and digital marketing).

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.

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.