The backstory to the Humans of Extremism: How did we choose our stories?
The media across platforms is full of human interest stories about populism and activism. Quite often, headlines across the globe splash gory details and pictures of victims and perpetrators of acts of extremism. In the ensuing milieu, activists have emerged who are fighting extremism through social media, street protests, the courts; and other forms of civic engagement. Our group set out to unearth case studies of extremism and populism and how the media across platforms present them. Our mandate was to create an interactive Playbook targeting our peers, youth clubs, and organizations; with the aim of promoting media literacy and provoking civic engagement in order to make the world a better place to live in.
In the process of trying to identify previously published stories and review literature, our dilemma was how to find a working definition of the terms populism and extremism. It was equally challenging to distinguish between extremism, populism and activism, since people tend to use them interchangeably. We were not able to readily get an authoritative definition of populism and extremism. Therefore, in attempting to conceptualize extremism, we envisaged scenarios where individuals are subjected to violence; dehumanizing conditions; or outright infringement of basic rights; that is, any issue that is excessive or radical. In the end, our concept was largely framed by a couple of scholarly works hosted in Google Scholar and other sources.
After several days of brainstorming, we identified several case studies and researched how the media covered them, as well as figured out their respective learning guides. After conferring with our faculty advisers, we settled on abduction and killing of albinos(Tanzania);Westboro protests(USA);Basketball hooliganism(Lebanon);Orlando shooting(USA);censorship of media(Mexico);hunger strike(Argentina); honor killing(various parts of the world); among others.
Again, we were able to interrogate issues and identify learning guides in each case: photo perception of news; recognition of fake news; context in which data is presented; appropriation of media as a public relations tool; media coverage of extremist groups; the thin line between protest and extremism, et al.
Granted, the traditional role of the media is to inform, educate and entertain. Again, freedom of expression is an inalienable right, according to Article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. How do journalists balance between exercise of press freedom and responsible journalism? Is the freedom absolute? Our stand is that it is not. Therefore, there is a sense in which the news media slants stories of people in extremist situations; hence undermining objectivity. There is an element of bias in the way issues of populism and extremism are packaged by the media in different parts of the world.
W e posit, for instance, that the albino tragedy in Tanzania can be packaged in ways that portray victims as ordinary human beings with a right to life rather than disadvantaged people; victims of honor killings and other forms of extrajudicial executions can be presented as victims and not villains; and news data can be contextualized rather than being blown out of proportion for the sake of attracting readers/viewers/advertisers or setting any self-seeking agenda. It is our sincere hope that this Playbook will ignite some level of media literacy and lead to meaningful civic engagement, and eventually social change, among our audience.
