Crisis/Media: The Uncertain States of Reportage

Crisis/Media: The Uncertain States of Reportage

Sarai-Waag Workshop
at Sarai-CSDS, Delhi
March 3-5, 2003

"The hottest place in hell is reserved for those
who tried to stay neutral in times of crisis…"
The Inferno, Dante Alighieri

Crisis/Media, is a conference that will bring together media professionals, activists, and scholars to discuss crisis in the media, and the crisis of the media today.

Since September 11, crises in the media have become everyday events and have taken on global dimensions. But what happens when crisis becomes commonplace? How can media tell the stories behind/beneath the crisis? How are the tensions between local/global, mainstream /alternative, event/representation unfolding? In thinking about these and other questions, the conference will try to focus on both the ways in which media cover/create/manage spectacular crisis events, and on the crisis that this reportage has produced for media itself. (For a full description See Below)

Key Issues:

* Are the Crises in the Media, the Crises of the Media? Where do the lines between reporting in the mainstream and the alternative media harden, and where do they blur?

* Has the "broadcast" model, which was the mainstay of the big media business, proved to be too bulky and too conservative in a world in which things change by the minute?

* Has the internet really made it possible for correspondents to be co-respondents to the realties of a changing world?

Sessions:

* South Asia : Bearing Witness to the Truth in Difficult Times
* Correspondents in the Crossfire : Reporting Situations of Conflict
* The Crisis of Everyday Life : Dispatches from Global Cities
* Stories of Earth and Water : Reporting Ecological Crises
* The Future of Global Independent Media Activism

Special focuses and reports from:

South Asia, Argentina, Australia, the Balkans

Activities:

Plenaries, Discussions, Open Sessions, Screenings

Presentations:

Apart from previously scheduled presentations, the workshop will feature some open sessions. If you are interested in making a presentation in one of the open sessions, please send a brief description of what you want to do to [email protected]

Support for Travel and Accommodation:

In general, we will not be able to cover any transport or accommodation costs, for coming to Delhi for the workshop, or for staying in Delhi. If you need a letter of support from Sarai, in order to raise funding for a trip that you are planning, then we will be happy to send you one. Write to [email protected] asking for a letter of support.

Pre-Registration:

If you are not presenting a paper but wish to attend the conference, you can pre-register by sending an email to [email protected].

Webpage:

For updates, notices, and schedules from now until the workshop, check http://www.sarai.net/events/crisis_media/crisis_media.htm Links to various interesting resources and readings are also available from this webpage.

For further details contact [email protected]

For more details check: http://www.sarai.net/events/crisis_media/crisis_media.htm