Workshop Outline
Ina Navazelskis, Radio Free Europe, Prague:
"Where stereotypes and the Media Intersect: How Tolerance is promoted
or inhibited by journalists"
This workshop will examine the role that journalists play in either reinforcing or dismantling stereotypes. A central question to be examined will be the function of media in a given society. Should it be an information vehicle only? Is media also, through the issues editors choose to report, those that they ignore, and the way that they report these issues, also a mirror of society itself? And should media have any other responsiblities: should it be a promoter of worthy causes, for example, a catalyst for change in any given society?
Most, though not all, cases and examples of stereotypes creeping into journalistic work will be drawn from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe - in other words, the countries of RFE/RL's broadcast region.
Some of the issues raised will include:
- The need for stereotypes: it's not all bad news
- How the nature and tempo of journalism work against, rather than for, dismantling stereotypes
- The role that global - most often Western - media have played in reinforcing stereotypes about Central and Eastern Europe
- The stereotypes that journalists from Eastern media have about the West
- The peformance of U. S. media domestically in perpetuating stereotypes about certain groups - such as blacks, gays, women, etc.
- How the media can - and cannot - participate in promoting tolerance in a given culture
