Journalism & Media International Center
JMIC’s leader Elisabeth Eide, recently gave the lecture «Global citizenship» at the European Council Association of Schools of Political Studies. The large conference, gathering many people from Russia and other Eastern European countries, was vibrant with lively discussions and intriguing questions. A wonderful experience.
JMIC’s leader Elisabeth Eide
Stockholm, 25 – 29 April 2017
Media researchers Rune Ottosen, Walid Al-Saqaf and Stig Arne Nohrstedt at the conference in Kalmar 9 May
The truck attack in Stockholm 7 April was the starting point at the international conference Journalism in a world of terrorism organised by the Media Institute Fojo and The Linnaeus University in Kalmar in Sweden 9 – 11 May.
The Head of news in Swedish Television (SVT), Ulf Johansson, told about the reactions and the editorial dilemmas after the attack. Media researcher Walid Al-Saqaf presented the findings about how Twitter was used extensively through #openstockholm.
Suvojit Bandopadhyaya broadened the perspective with a presentation about terrorists and their tactical use of social media platforms. Daya Thussu held a keynote speech about (Mis)Representing Terrorism in Global Media.
Exiled Can Dündar, former editor of the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, could unfortunately only join on skype to tell about what happens in his country. Finally Courtney C. Radsh in the Committee to Protect Journalists gave an overview of Journalism in the Age of Terrorism.
The international conference for media-researchers and journalists continued with workshops and panel discussions for two more days in Kalmar. Read more
Elsebeth Frey and Solveig Steien presented the Rig at an international conference in Oslo last year.
This year they will investigate the situation in Afghanistan, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Poland, Tunisia and USA.
70 students in seven groups will make articles, interviews, pictures, videos and audios about the media freedom in one of the countries.
Their stories will be published on the school´s webpage – Journalen – during the third week.
The multimedia Rig about press freedom around the world has been organized eight times. It was called one of the best European pedagogical teaching models for Transmedia Journalism by Integrated Journalism in Europe (IJIE) in 2015 http://learning.euromain.net/
Leader of JMIC, Elisabeth Eide, and the Afghan delegation.
In end February/early March, Dagny Stuedahl and Elisabeth Eide visited partner institution Faculty of Communication Sciences and Media Studies at Islamic Azad University (IAU) in Teheran. A workshop was held on Media and Climate Change – and on Peace Journalism, with colleagues from Afghanistan. The attendance was good and the discussion lively and creative, demonstrating that media pay too little attention to climate change perils – and to peaceful solutions to conflict.
JMIC’s representatives also visited the newspaper belonging to the IAU, and ISNA (Iranian Students News Agency), and were received by Prof. Hamid Mirzadeh, President of the whole university, which has more than 1.5 million students, at home and abroad.
From the left: Dean Seyed Vahid Aqili, Dagny Stuedahl, Director Haid Mirzadeh, Elisabeth Eide og Terje Skaufjord (accompanying partner).
An increasingly important traveling companion for
people fleeing is the cell phone. It is a friend who provides many kinds of services during long and dangerous journeys from war and persecution. In these stories, the cell phone forms the core, woven into the larger stories of the lives of the eighteen interviewed. The book shows how important modern technology can be in precarious situations in which people are at the mercy of traffickers, police, border guards and changing weather conditions. Through this, stories about the journey and life in “no man’s land” between absolute insecurity and relative safety, are told. Two of the authors look back on their flight ten years ago when technology played a somewhat smaller role, yet the situations that arose were equally harsh.
Read about the event in Khrono (in Norwegian only)
JMIC´s partner institution An-Najah National University hosted a conference on gender and journalism in Nablus in Palestine on February 14.
Kristin Skare Orgeret gave the keynote speech and presented a paper on women journalists in conflict and war at the conference.
In addition to a number of local journalists and women’s rights activists journalist Francesca Borri attended the conference and shared some of her experiences as a war reporter.
Teacher of photojournalism Bernt Eide also attended the conference. He currently teaches in Nablus and has been engaged in cooperation with An-Najah University for many years.
Kristin Skare Orgeret also attended the launch of a new Palestinian policy paper on media reform in Ramallah.
Two of Norway’s leading experts on journalist security, Trond Idås and Marte Høiby, gave an introductory course in Kristiansand, Norway, 6 February. The course was aimed at journalists and programme staff members working in countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Topics on the agenda were how to handle stressful situations and how to operate in conflict zones, and the course was well received among the 10 participants.
The course was a collaborative effort between JMIC and Strømme Foundation.
If you are interested in organizing a similar course, please contact us and we will taylor it to your needs.
Professor Elisabeth Eide
Read about the event covered by The Jakarta Post.
Under the headline Ten Years Debating Freedom of Expression – Looking Back, Looking Forward appr. 40 participants – both journalists and media academics – from twelve countries gathered in Jakarta 23 – 25 January.
The debates started after the controversies in the aftermath of the Muhammed caricatures published in Jyllands-Posten. One of the initiatives was to invite journalists from a wide range of countries for dialogue conferences in Indonesia and Norway respectively. Now, more than ten years after the first Global Intermedia Dialogue (GIMD) conference was held in Indonesia, the ambition was to highlight experiences and look ahead.
The discussions focused on themes such as Hate Speech – Social media, Media and Marginalization – Gender, Religious, Ethnic and Sexual Minorities, Dialogue vs Confrontation, 20 Years after Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations”, Terrorism – Extremism, The Post-Truth Era?– and last, but not least: How free is fiction? Literature and limits.
The conference was a cooperation between the Department of Communication, Universitas Indonesia and JMIC.
A publication with journalistic and academic contributions from this and a conference in March last year is planned.
From South Sudan, Nepal, Iran, Pakistan and Palestine 13 students have arrived in Oslo to attend a course in journalism on globalization, war and peace at HiOA together with 11 students based in Norway.
The course will run from 16 January until 3 February. The students will learn different theories on globalization and conflict, the processes of media globalization and journalistic performances in war and conflicts.
Their teachers are JMIC staff Elisabeth Eide, Rune Ottosen, Kristin Skare Orgeret and Roy Krøvel, as well as editor Nawzat Shamdin from Iraq and the independent journalist Anders Sømme Hammer, who has done extensive work in Afghanistan – among others.
The students already have bachelor´s degrees, and will write a term paper or a reportage as part of their exam. More information about the course is available here.
A team with partners from Uganda and Norway will do the job, starting from a meeting with IAWRT representatives Friday 7 January.
The team is led by JMICs director Elisabeth Eide, and includes research associate Hanna Marie Knudsen (MA, Journalism Studies, HiOA), Prof. Goretti Linda Nassanga and research associate Brian Semujju, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
The evaluation work includes desk studies, interviews and polls, as well as field trips to selected chapters of the IAWRT.
