That’s the actual name of the article
that appeared on guardian recently. Denmark is one of the ‘popular locations’
for refugees these days. They have welcomed loads of them and the issue has
been on the government agenda for quite a while. However, as the article
outlines, ‘voices of refugees have been largely absent from the mainstream
media’. That is somewhat representative of what is happening in Europe.
The newspaper gave refugees, that are trained
journalists/editors/etc. a chance to express their voice without being quoted or
put into contexts created by other journalists. They were given full rights to
send a message of how they actually feel and what’s happening with their lives. I listen to BBC world news podcast every morning and the
message that I had from BBC was crying women and freezing babies VS. Hungary is
a bad country, but Austria has every right to act however it feels right. Nothing
really consistent. Therefore, at least for me, this takeover of the newspaper
for a day seems a very good initiative to close the gap between reality and
public opinion.
What do you think about this? It would be interesting if there’s any other examples of similar initiatives.
Karolis Damanskas
What do you think about this? It would be interesting if there’s any other examples of similar initiatives.
Karolis Damanskas
Very interesting case. I think it is good idea to give the refugees an actual 'voice' by letting them takeover the news for a day. In this way the reader also get a chance to actually get to know the people and not only the vision the media wants the residents to have. Yet, you could also argue that the journalists (the refugees) that are taking over, also are trying to create a certain image about the situation that's also not 100% correct. At least the readers know both story's now.
ReplyDelete- Anouk de Jong
It's definitely an interesting approach on the part of the newspaper. Yet, I also question the choice to choose only refugees who are trained journalists: won't that end up narrowing the scope of the refugees' voice?
ReplyDeleteBut still, sounds like a great initiative, also giving Danish people the opportunity to hear the other side of the story from a new perspective.
I agree and also think this a good and interesting idea. Moreover, I think that the reporting refugees could interview others who are not trained in jounalism and therefore give them also a voice. I think it is important for the local people to hear about personal stories to understand the situation better. Another idea would be that Danish people (or rather Danish journalists) could interview those reporting refugees because they might have specific questions.
ReplyDelete-Valerie Kirsch
I agree that it is a very interesting idea to let the refugees tell their stories without the intervention of journalists. As we learned during this course when writing news articles the frames journalist construct in their articles are most of the time influenced by the ideological leanings of the news organization they work for, by influences of the market of their country and by national and international cultures. Therefore giving the refugees the change to tell their own story without the intervention of journalists may lead to new perspectives about the refugees fleeing to Europa.
ReplyDeleteI also think it's a great initiative, giving refugees their own platform. Sadly enough one day is only a snapshot in time. As the 'refugee crisis' is an ongoing thing, the newpaper might consider to give the refugees their own space in the paper, like a weekly column, as long as the subject is prominent in the newsmedia.
ReplyDelete