Elite panel discusses evolution in conflict coverage

When Senator and former UN General Romeo Dallaire calls this period in history the crux of a revolutionary moment – people listen.

The Concordia-based Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies invited Dallaire to speak at a conference last Thursday and Friday on the media’s role in halting mass atrocities. Other panelists included former Prime Minister Paul Martin and Ric MacInnes Rae of the CBC radio program Dispatches.

Dallaire was one of the founders of the Responsibility to Protect – A program that advocates fast military action to prevent genocides like the one he witnessed in Rwanda.

He says that governments like Canada do not act fast enough when they are needed. He used the conference as a call to action. 

“We need somebody or some people and I think it’s the youth of the nation to start saying where the hell are we going with all this and what do we want to do?”

The conference was organized to mark the tenth anniversary of R2P. Undeniably, the media plays a big role in generating awareness about major conflicts worldwide. For instance, millions of Facebook posts and Tweets hooked the public’s attention over the past year during the Arab Spring.

Panelist Mona Eltahawy understands the value of Twitter. With nearly sixty-five thousand followers due primarily to her coverage of the Arab Spring she knows the huge role that new media can play. But she gives the credit to the public, not the network.

“It is not a Twitter revolution, it is not a Facebook revolution, It’s a people’s revolution.”

Macinnis Rae agrees that traditional media is shifting and social networkers are helpful, but not the whole picture.

“Its can be part of it, but it isn’t the answer its one of the tools I think in resolving it.”

Instead, the panelists agreed that traditional media must evolve and keep up with the new media beat. And ideally shift the focus from protection to prevention of atrocities before they even happen.