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Conflict reporting, context in teaching and practise Barbara O’Shea DIT

There was a song popular in World War II which went Bless them all, Bless

them all, the long and the short and the tall. And it struck me that this

reference to soldiers, the long, short and tall, could also describe war

reporting. We have the short, important for keeping us updated; we have the

tall- those tall tales of atrocities that haven’t in fact happened, the

sensationalism that seems, inevitably, a part of war reporting. Saddam

Hussein unplugging the incubators in maternity hospitals, for example.

It’s the long form that’s often more enduring. Pieces that I still return to are

James Fenton on the Fall of Saigon. Ryszard Kapuścińsk on the last days of

Emperor Haile Selassie. Anything by Martha Gelhorn; her reports from the

Spanish Civil War where she went and spoke to people after their homes had

been bombed. Reporting, as her collection of writings is named, the View

from the Ground. Another is Killer Elite written by Evan Wright for Rolling

Stone magazine during the Gulf War. Wright spent time travelling in a

humvee with American troops (almost like you would follow a rock group)

and captured the insulated world of young soldiers – who had grown up with

video games – as they drove through the desert observing all that was

happening through a monitor. His reports are chilling – anytime I’ve given

them to students they’ve really made an impression.

I’m not promoting one form of journalism over another, we need both short

and long. And I would even suggest that with the technology available now

and as we work horizontally across platforms both forms together can mean

broader, and deeper, coverage of events and issue. If we take Twitter, for

example, the ultimate shortform with its 140 characters, it can generate a

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conversation that creates interest in a particular area - directing people to

long form if they want to find out more. In broadcasting, edited interviews

are available in full on podcasts and websites. And in radio, television and

film there is a resurgence of the documentary.

If we are saying that it is essential, in this frenetic age of information, to take

things slow – not sacrifice accuracy to speed. And if we want to imbue in

students the value of this, I suggest that this is really important in reporting

conflict because war is so disruptive of people’s lives.

The media thrives on conflict; it is a key component in drama and story-

telling: the set-up, the complication or conflict, the resolution. It pervades

the experience of being human – from personal relations, the domestic,

local, national and international politics and indeed news.

I’m talking today about conflict reporting in relation to international

relations. We live in a globalised world and we know information is

available from almost anywhere in the world at the touch of a button. It is

not, as we know, a case of quantity of information but quality of

information. And in the area of conflict the same problems pertain that

pertain to all journalism at this time. How accurate is the information; how

credible the source; how quickly can you get the story to stand up.

We report a lot on international conflict. Foreign correspondents are only

one set of reporters among journalists, editors, producers, who are at base

and sifting through international news to fill pages or broadcast hours.

International stories are incorporated into most news reporting.

So what should students of journalism know about conflict reporting?

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In many ways reporting conflict well is simply good journalism where you

research and inform yourself of the background and the people involved.

Proponents of Peace Journalism as a model have identified hallmarks of how

generally war is reported and put together ideas for a different approach.

The peace model suggests not treating war as a zero-sum game with one

winner and one loser. Instead, reporters should be attuned to other

possibilities and strategies. These may not come from elite sources, who are

often heavily relied on when reporting conflict. So diversity of sources is

important, what’s happening on the ground? Are there voices that are simply

not being heard, much less reported? Diversity of sources – good journalism.

It’s also important not to demonise or use language that is inflammatory.

Journalism certainly has a role in how different actors are perceived.

All of this takes time – slow journalism. Researching background, going

beyond elite sources, not being fed a narrative that is then passed on because

of a pending deadline, seeking out diverse voices all takes time.

As educators we have to at least get students thinking about these things,

whatever compromises they may have to make later in the workplace. We

have to teach good journalism and hope it will stand to them. We shouldn’t

take short-cuts simply because we are aware of how newsrooms operate.

Here in DIT when we teach conflict reporting with students we aim to at

least expose them to some ideas and tools what will set them thinking about

what they read and watch. We hope it will inform their practice.

Included in the module are lectures on the framing of narrative – what is the

dominant narrative that prevails. What is the media’s role in promoting or

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challenging that narrative. What are the underlying reasons for the conflict –

power, economic control, ethnic tension, poverty?

We have them look at international law in relation to armed conflict – so

they have an awareness of the Geneva conventions. How should prisoners of

war be treated? How should civilians be treated?

What about refugees, not only what rights they might have but how should

journalists represent them?

We ask them to think about gender and war – do men and women

experience aspects of war differently?

And children in war – why so many child soldiers for example?

In other words have information that allow them to move from simple

stories that demand a humanitarian response to well-informed stories that

demand a political response, often sadly, lacking in these situations.

We look at peace processes – why do they fail or why are they successful

and how do you report on countries in transition from war to functioning

societies? What is the role of the media?

And the arms trade – to go beyond the use of weapons to critically think

about the arms trade. Who are the big suppliers – this often comes as a

surprise - the possibility of arms control.

Examining context in this way can impact on the reporting of stories nearer

to home. It can give more understanding to how insecure war leaves people.

Why they may be seeking asylum. Or how they are vulnerable to trafficking.

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In examining underlying causes of conflict, such as poverty and

underdevelopment, we might ask questions of our own society. Is our cheap

clothing at the expense of standards of living elsewhere that may exacerbate

conflict?

Or are trade rules that are advantageous to us to the detriment of others?

Or agricultural subsidies – do they create difficult conditions for farmers in

developing countries and undermine communities. Perhaps even in countries

where, on the other hand, our governments are funding overseas

development projects.

These questions are not quick news items – they require slow journalism to

tease them out.

As educators we need to keep relevant and respond to the changing work

opportunites that may be there for students. New technology offers diverse

and cross-platform career choices.

We feel our students have a contribution to make to traditional media

because they have a particular relationship with technology. They are not

carrying the baggage of the old style, the way we do things, and trying

somehow to make old practices work on different formats. They look at

those formats afresh. It may well be a mistake to conclude that because

newspapers are in crisis, journalism is in crisis. I’m not sure that young

people view it that way. Young people get news not just from the

mainstream but from blogs and social media.

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More recent organisations, such as Vice, take the internet as their starting

point for reporting and operate in ways that takes advantage of cheaper new

technology. Vice News challenges the view that young people aren’t

interested in news, it’s target audience it says is‘the connected generation’.

Regarded by some as a kind of ‘stunt’ journalism and the anti-thesis to slow

journalism are they maturing into long-form documentary makers? Watch

this space.

Cheaper, portable technology we know makes it easier for anyone to

generate content, even on mobile phones. Many stories, especially around

conflict, are generated or supported by eye-witness reports, audio and

images. Students can bring a journalistic eye to content generated by others

– by eye-witnesses. In this way journalism principles are still important.

Content are not stories – there is still a skill in telling stories.

Other career possibilities are opening up in sectors that are increasingly

using self-generated material. Non-government organisations, NGOs, are

established voices and sources in areas of conflict – through humanitarian

assistance, human rights advocacy, and conflict prevention. They are

providers of content for old and new media, including social media. They

are often a way in to diverse sources through their presence on the ground or

their networks.

One NGO that encourages the recording of human rights violations is

Witness. It was set up over 20 years ago to provide activists with video

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recorders and training in order to document what was going on in their own

area. They gather all of these stories on their website and are engaged across

multiple platforms. What’s also interesting about Witness is that a couple of

years ago they announced a collaboration with Storyful to create a human

rights channel on YouTube. According to Witness,

the channel is a platform to tell breaking stories through the lenses of

citizen journalists that will change the way we view, share and engage

human rights video.

Many of these working arrangements – Vice News, NGOs, Storyful and

Witness are still developing and testing boundaries. But they offer exciting

opportunities and possibilities for journalism graduates.

Another reason why journalists should engage with quality conflict reporting

is because journalist colleagues in areas of conflict or areas prone to conflict

may be curtailed in what they do. We know that journalists can face

sanctions trying to get stories out. Sanctions that vary from economic

pressure to imprisonment or death. We should be collegial and aware of

what is going on in different countries.

A current international story is the conflict with ISIS. There are so many

different angles to this story. We know about the refugees crossing into

Turkey. It’s a humanitarian story and that gets reported. The story is infused

with politics and international relations. Depending on the news source,

some of the politics are included in coverage. I’m looking at this now from

the Turkish side – who is going to give us this context. Turkish journalists?

During the summer I spent a month in Istanbul with the OSCE, Organisation

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and Security Co-operation Europe at the time of the presidential election and

met journalists and news organisations.

In this society which is becoming more and more polarised under the

authoritarianism of Erdogan it is increasingly difficult for journalists to

operate in an independent manner. And yet there are many conflict stories to

be told from Turkey and many voices to be heard. Voices from the political

opposition, from the Kurds – at the heart of the refugee crisis on the border.

Turkey is supposed to be engaged in a peace process with its Kurdish

population but voices who critique the process, articulate concern and try

and cover the violence perpetrated on these communities are suppressed.

Turkey is ranked 154 out of 179 countries by Reporters without Borders.

The media environment is such that media ownership is loaded against

dissident voices; coverage by the public service broadcaster is biased;

Perceived ‘anti-government’ news organisations are denied government

revenue;

There is a climate of fear and intimidation characterized by lawsuits,

government pressure and orchestrated public smear campaigns that target

critics. One journalist described what he called a ‘lynching campaign’

against him conducted through social media.

The Turkish government has recently introduced further censorship of social

media with Internet laws that block websites. There have been bans on

YouTube and Twitter.

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So how can we support collegues under pressure or facilitate information

getting out?

If we don’t expect our students to think in terms of ‘larger picture’; if we

don’t instil some sense of provocative engagement with the world, the kind

of engagement that demands long form journalism, we do them a disservice.

And we do the profession, the public and colleagues under pressure a

disservice too.

I’d like to finish with a quote from Pulitzer prize winning journalist Paul

Salopek on slow journalism -

The world isn’t flat. It’s deeply corrugated. And some of the best stories lie

hidden in the corrugations.