Objectives
- To understand the power of media and how it can shape reality and influence conflicts
- To practice analysing media in order to promote critical thinking
Before you start
- Prepare a range of newspaper cuttings on one particular conflict or theme. They should be taken from a range of different newspapers with very different perspectives – both tabloids and broadsheets
- Prepare 3 stations in the room with the appropriate media items. If you don’t have access to the internet or a laptop you can simply have three newspaper stations. If you have more than 15 participants you could have extra stations
– Newspaper station: copies of newspaper article
– TV station: a laptop with television news videos
– Internet station: printed articles from online news sites - You can write down the three sets of questions described in the instructions on a piece of flipchart paper to show to participants when you arrive at these steps
What to do
Ask the group if they know about the conflict that you have chosen for the activity. Let some participants briefly describe what they know. Say that you are going to take a closer look at this conflict together.
Split the participants into three small groups. Each group will be responsible for one station.
Ask each group to read or watch the materials at their station
Give the participants enough time to read through/watch them all, and then explain that they should now analyse the media. They should write on different coloured pieces of paper or with different coloured pens:
• The facts about this conflict
• The opinions about this conflict
Then, with the help of the first analysis, they should answer these questions:
• What similarities and differences can you find for the same event in different media?
• Can you find articles that foster racism, hate or fear? How do they do that? Do others do the opposite?
They should then prepare a creative presentation of their findings as a mural on big sheets of paper
Once everyone has put their mural on a wall, ask the groups to walk around and find out more about the conflict from the other media. They should not just look at the other murals, but try to answer the following questions and take notes:
• Do other media show different facts and opinions from your own? Which ones?
• Do they explain things that have not been mentioned in your media? What?
• Are there any facts that contradict each other?
Then come back together for the debriefing.
Debriefing
- How did you find the activity?
- Were you surprised by anything?
- Was it easy to differentiate between fact and opinion? Do the articles have more fact or opinion in their reporting of the conflict? Do they show the same facts? Are there any facts which contradict one another? Why do you think this can happen?
- What are the differences between print, internet and TV?
- How are different groups described in the media? Are there any adjectives that are regularly used to describe the same group of people? What effect can this have?
- Did the facts or opinions shape your feelings about the conflict in any way?
- Why does the media stir people’s feelings? Is it okay that they do this?
- What role do you think the media has to play in reporting conflicts?
- How can we best find out what is really happening in a conflict?
Tips for facilitators
Finding the right material is crucial for the activity because the results can change dramatically depending on the news you use. Taking news from different types of media is really important. It could also be interesting to take reports from different points in the development of a conflict and see whether the way it is reported changes. It can be harder to find conclusive facts about current conflicts but even information and ‘facts’ about historical conflicts can differ a lot, especially with questions like ‘how did the war start?’ and ‘what was the war about?’
Make sure that the discussion about the conflict is constructive and stays connected to the topic. Explain that your aim is not to find out the truth about the conflict, but to analyse different sides of the reporting.
You can adapt the session to make it easier or shorter by using only two news items per station or using only print media.