Lessening the Construction of Otherness

A slow ethics of journalism

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12909320
AutoresHelene Maree Thomas (autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Volumen10
Número4
Páginas476-491
Fecha de publicación2016-01-08
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournalism Practice (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1751-2786 • E-ISSN: 1751-2794
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17512786.2015.1120164
OpenAlexW2280055583
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas10
Referencias citadas31

Foreign reporting plays a significant role in shining a light on stories of conflict and hardship that would potentially remain untold, but a reoccurring problem in this practice, particularly when the reportage is about non-Western countries, is the construction of otherness. In the case of Africa, Western reportage has perpetuated particular ideas about racial difference. According to Stuart Hall, this "racialized regime of representation" persisted into the late twentieth century, and while racial stereotypes have been and always are being contested, there is extensive evidence that points to a particular rhetoric when writing about Africa. Focusing on this issue of representation, as well as the role of the individual media practitioner in telling the stories of distant Others, this paper examines the extent to which a methodology involving deeper engagement may provide an effective strategy for subverting negative and dehumanising representations. Specifically, it examines a set of principles for the practice of slow journalism derived from an action research project carried out by the author in Rwanda from 2012 to 2014. The results demonstrate how by taking the time to engage and collaborate with local communities, a richer, more nuanced, and ultimately more culturally responsive form of journalism is possible.KEYWORDS: AfricaOtherothernessradio documentaryradio journalismrepresentationRwandaslow journalism ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSIn developing the ideas presented here, I have received helpful input from Dr Gail Phillips. This study was conducted with an ethical clearance from the Human Research Ethics Committee of Murdoch University, Western Australia.DISCLOSURE STATEMENTNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Notes1. For a full explanation of the methodology, see Thomas (Citation2015).2. I used a pseudonym to protect the identity of the story subjects who were granted anonymity in the radio documentary.3. In the Kinyarwanda language, highly populated low-income communities with many small houses intermingled together are called akajagari (the word literally translated means disorder).4. The participants of the first study gave themselves the title, "the true storytellers." It is for this reason that I refer to the participants cited later in this article as Storytellers 2 and 4.Additional informationNotes on contributorsHelene Maree ThomasHelene Maree Thomas, Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies, Macquarie University, Australia

Action (physics · Journalism · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics · Rhetoric · Set (abstract data type · Sociology · Gender Studies · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Narrative Theory and Analysis · Rhetoric and Communication Studies