UNPLUGGED Symposium: Plug-In IV: Local Conflicts – Global Media

Media cast zones of conflict into the arena of global attention, creating and, in equal measure, counterfeiting their identities. This is a power that makes media not just a forum for conflicts but rather a combat zone itself.

Danny Schechter of Mediachannel.org sheds a critical light on the media-led isolationism of the United States which feeds, on the one hand, public ignorance of the world, and on the other, a lack of empathy towards the world’s poor and dispossessed. This is more than a digital divide between developed and developing countries, it is a divide of consciousness, much of it at least partially the result of our media diet.

Jennifer Sibanda (Zimbabwe) from the Federation of African Women in Media shows new ways how Africa women can be 'plugged' in, how women can participate in the production and dissemination of information with a view to influencing decision-making on development priorities, planning of programs and allocation of resources.

Winters Negbenebor from Indymedia Nigeria shows which role independent media can play in giving people assess to be the media , replacing the present corporate media structures and encouraging open publishing where all can have equal rights to expressing views and also having access to all information as published by others.

Philippe Quéau, director of the Information Society Division of UNESCO raises the question of how access to information technology for the most disadvantaged populations in order to allow them to take an active role in a global exchange between cultures and at the same time threatens the cultural diversity and may give rise to new conflicts.






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