killing the messenger

Art, Awareness & Journalism

"The typewriter installation «On Journalism #2 Typewriter» writes generatively constructed stories about all journalist who have been killed worldwide between 1992 and today based on the existing data of their lives as well as their published work. The individual stories are connected through common fields of coverage, places, professions and many other aspects. Besides the text the typewriter creates also images e.g. flags which are heavier distorted the more journalists got killed in that particular country." (link)

 

#UN: We Must Protect Journalists

 

UNHR released this statement on the 6th of July, underscoring the importance of protecting journalists and fighting impunity. (excerpts):

"Journalists who report on events have the power to influence the lives of millions. This can also put their own lives at risk with the threat of censorship, abduction, assault, and even murder, says Christof Heyns, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. "

“While the plight of the foreign war correspondent attracts the most attention, and is worthy of such concern, special attention should also be paid to the question of how to alter the fate of the local newspaper journalist who drives home after work and is intercepted by two people on a motorbike, one holding a gun,” Heyns said. “It is a threat to the human rights project as a whole when a blogger is tracked [down] and her head is found next to her keyboard with a threatening note.”

#Syria: The Wiki Dump

At a press conference held this morning in Frontline Club's main room, Wikileaks announced a massive trove of files on Syria.  Already, the evidence is shining light on Assad's government and his supporters, including an Italian firm who busily installed surviellance tech during the uprising.  Wiki's news partners are not without controversy though.  Channel 4's Alex Thompson blogs for INSI about the difficulty in reporting accurately from and about Syria.  CNN Comments on the brave citizen video journalists who are the main source of footage coming out of the stricken country.  The Guardian reports that pro-Assad activists have apparently hacked Al Jazerra's internet Stream and Huffington Post reports on known terrorists crossing into Syria from Iraq.  While the last three links here are not a direct result of the WikiDump, the continuing escalation of cyberwarfare in the Syrian civil war marks it dubiously as a conflict of both physical and digital attacks.  As the Dump is parsed and reported, more technological links to oppression and violence will doubtlessly be revealed.

#Syria: Reporting A Warzone With No Reporters

As much of the foreign press has abandoned Syria (with a few notable exceptions), most of the reporting coming from the embattled country is done by local and citizen journalists.  The Economist sheds detailed information on how the news is getting out - and how it's verified when possible. (excerpt:)

"Much information relied on by the media comes from citizen journalists and activists inside Syria. Working out which ones are credible sources can be tricky because many use pseudonyms. Some are known personally to your correspondent (unfortunately they go missing at a rapid rate—fleeing the country, arrested or, worse, killed). Making contact can be hard too. Phone lines can be monitored so many use Skype, which can be intermittent thanks to power cuts and communication blackouts in areas undergoing military operations. Many activists are armed with satellite phones. Wherever possible we try to corroborate information with longstanding Syrian contacts on the ground...An intensive propaganda war and a polarised population has led to contradictions and mistakes. Mr Assad has enlisted the help of the Electronic Army, a group of pro-Assad trolls, to disseminate false information. France 24 was stung in June last year when the then Syrian ambassador to France, Lamia Chakkour, apparently resigned on air. It later turned out to be a hoax. Some refugees have exaggerated, either deliberately or through basing their information on second-hand rumour. In one widely publicised case a group of activists burned tyres to create a backdrop of smoke in a video."

 

#journalism2.0: Changing The Delivery

Last week, J.C. Sterns posted this thoughtful essay with the heading "Putting People at the Center of Journalism".  As Sterns points out "We need journalism that is prepared to work side by side with communities, to do the hard labor of rebuilding our public square for the digital age."

To that end, a few interesting links have cropped up since reading Sterns' piece.  A group called Digital First Media has introduced the pop-up newsroom.

"There will be a total of four "mobile community media labs" introduced, starting at the end of next month, operated by the San Jose Mercury News, the St Paul Pioneer Press, the York Daily Record and the New Haven Register... Matt DeRienzo, Connecticut group editor for the Journal Register Company, told Journalism.co.uk, which will see staff take to a van and 'show up with folding chairs, a folding table, and a wifi signal...We'll go to either parts of our coverage area we don't feel connected to or we'll go around a big news event and engage in conversation and let bloggers covering the same event use our wifi signal".

Another approach is taken by Cartoon Movement, who harness the creative forces of graphic novelists combined with html sourced dialog to present reported stories as well as political comics.

The Online Censorship project aims to croudsource acts of censorship across private online platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and FaceBook. 

"OnlineCensorship.org is a space where communities crowdsource instances of censorship enacted by private online platforms. With the emergence of privately-owned social media companies into the so-called online ‘public sphere,’ new questions arise about what role corporations have in defining what is or is not ‘acceptable’ speech."