By Anzala Riyaz:
As a recluse who is pursuing journalism, I am constantly told, “You need to be an extrovert.”
But then, is it true? Do we really need to be talkative and extrovert with an outer rebel personality to pursue journalism? Or is it indispensable to be the ‘hard and stone’ kind for the same? Not really.
Accordingly, here I bring to you the idea of ‘peace journalism’ which by theory many people know.
A simple definition goes like this: “Peace journalism has been developed from research that indicates that often news about conflict has a value bias towards violence. It uses conflict analysis and transformation to update the concept of balance, fairness and accuracy in reporting.”
But isn’t the last part supposed to be the very essence of journalism? Then how is ‘peace journalism’ any different?
Bias is not one-sided. Just like a coin, it too has two faces. When we report a story, or study a particular case, violence can intervene when a side appears stronger than the other, ending up with a biased approach.
So this ideology of journalism is much about ‘filtering’ what makes sense, what’s important and framing it into a non-violent and mature story preventing it from transcending into the rebellious fringe.
So, if you are a person, who loves writing, speaking, reporting and debating but only what’s relevant, and are an introvert, do not fret! Journalism is for you until you cannot stand errors and you can’t wait to report.
Kudos to the ‘fire-journalists’ but let not fade away this poignant and mature line of journalism. It is your choice then, how to report and how to bring the change, with or without violence.