From the beginning Next 5 Minutes has worked with idea of 'tactical media'
but there are many who object to the militaristic nature of this term.
The Next 5 Minutes used it because we have tended to emphasize the use of
small scale media in "David and Goliath" confrontations (such as
Maclibel/Macspotlight) in which small groups of activists have found
themselves in conflict with large states, organizations or corporations.
In this context our terminology has proved useful. But this language is
not always appropriate and for a growing number of groups the time has
come to go beyond the metaphors of war. In this forum we bring together
media activists who are working in different ways to build bridges between
communities with a history of conflict.
This kind of work can be slow, painstaking and painful. There are so many
issues that reinforce division and conflict. Time and again we see how
language, religion, history and ethnicity are exploited to create
architectures of fear, exclusion and dominance. We have seen terrifying
examples (B92 have made an impressive collection of such examples) of how
the media can be used to demonise the other and legitimize the urge for
one community to dominate another. Whilst this forum cannot avoid these
examples we need also to show models where small and large scale media and
create actively participate in "humanizing" different communities as a
first step to building bridges between them. |
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