Director’s Blog

I asked the Polis Summer School students to finish their 12 day course by giving me a code for the road. Tell me, I said, what should be the guiding principles for journalism about people who are suffering or are from other countries. Here are the ideas from different groups of students  for some ethical guidelines. For what it’s worth, my suggestion was that ‘there must always be a local narrator of any story’. (more…)

A view of the world

Travelling around New York City at the weekend with my two teenage boys was a reminder of just how globalised our culture has become with shops, music and even art looking distinctly familiar to my young Londoners.

An all-day seminar today on world media seemed to suggest that global journalism has some trans-national trends, too. But as ever, look closer and the cracks appear. (more…)

Is it the job of the journalist to stop a genocide? What is the role of news media in actually fanning flames of hatred? Can we ever report honestly on the complexity of ethnic conflict and subsequent attempts at reconciliation?

There is no more painful case study for these difficult questions than the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 so just to have a serious and sensitive discussion is, I feel an achievement.

There was no sign of compassion fatigue at the Polis debate on Rwanda, genocide and the media. We had to turn people away from a packed hall that heard from two genocide survivors: Patrick Iregura and Serge Rwigamba  and from Channel 4 News’ Lindsey Hilsum, who was there in 1994. (more…)

(Photo from DuckRabbit)

Is journalism simply about reporting the world or do some journalists want to change it? Today I am writing a paper for a conference later this week on ‘cosmopolitanism’. It’s the idea that the news media can connect different people with the aim of reducing suffering and injustice. Well here’s a practical effort by the development media agency DuckRabbit. (more…)

Old to New

This is the text of a speech to a gathering of global journalism education leaders at the 80th anniversary conference of Fudan University, Shanghai.

JOURNALISM EDUCATION FOR A NETWORKED MEDIA

John Davison, the Head of Media at Christian Aid has begun his personal visiting research fellowship at Polis with a research seminar at which he outlined his plans for a study of the relationship between journalism and NGOs in Africa.

Here are his notes, written in a personal capacity, sketching out the scope of his research plans. If you are interested in these issues please get in touch with John at j.h.davison@lse.ac.uk

Media and Development – Where’s The Gap

By John Davison (more…)

The current economic crisis is setting back growth in the world’s poorest countries by at least three years. But the devastating consequences of this are not making the headlines as the West worries about unemployment and bankruptcies in our own High Streets.

Paul Collier and Bob Geldof joined some of the world’s top bankers and politicians today in an attempt to push the plight of the poorest up the agenda. (more…)

Here in the West there is much debate about the standard of our financial journalism, but there are still some places where business reporting struggles to survive at all. (more…)

Everyone in rich democracies like Britain assumes that a free media is a vital part of our liberal political system. But can journalism contribute to creating a thriving society where freedom is a novelty and resources are small? Is a free press a luxury in a country trying to get on its feet again after a war or civil conflict? Should aid money to fragile states and developing countries go to health, education and the economy rather than to supporting journalism?

These were the big questions put to a group of media and Development experts at a seminar held in Brighton at the Institute for Development Studies supported by the BBC World Service Trust. (more…)