Communication for Peace: How Digital Technologies can Enhance Empathy and Dialogue

Communication for Peace: How Digital Technologies can Enhance Empathy and Dialogue
Carole St. Laurent
Web/MultimediaSpecialist
FluidITSolutions
www.fluidITsolutions.com

Websites, multimedia, capacity building
Cellular-based storytelling in Australia
Capacity building in Uganda
eGovernment collaboration in Canada
Peace work inspired by Rwandan filmmaker
Pilot project, www.cryrwanda.com
@fluidIT

I do not want the peace that passeth understanding. I want the understanding which bringeth peace.
Helen Keller

Communication for Peace
Digital technologies enhance empathy and dialogue
Digital storytelling
Social media
Interventions and Action
Conflict & incident mapping
Mobile reporting

The Challenge
True understanding is hard enough when you share:
Common language
Common culture
Common standard of living
Similar life experiences

The Challenge
Sometimes even the people closest to us seem like they’re from different planets!

The Challenge
Even sharing genetic material doesn’tguarantee communication!
Daddy’s HomeTony Rubino and Gary MarksteinJuly 8, 2009

Peace Communications
True understanding is even more difficult when you must overcome:
Language differences
Socio-economic differences
Religious differences
Values differences
Generations or even centuries of conflict

“Truth”
How much of our “given” truth is universal?
Misunderstood?
Offensive?

“Truth”
Challenged?

Enabling Empathy
How can we enable deeper understanding and empathy?
See the world through their eyes – a world that outsiders cannot usually see
Hear sounds from their world
Hear their voice
Empathize with their emotions

Digital Storytelling
Empowers people to speak their own truth
Transcend geography, time
Rich mediums – sights, sounds
Multiple speakers
Complete, unfiltered messages
Uninterrupted messages

Digital Storytelling
Invites audiences behind the walls which usually obscure “the other”
Into homes
Into sacred spaces and events
Into the speaker’s thoughts and emotions

Visual Storytelling
Waris Ali Chaudhry’s photographs
http://www.internationalpeaceandconflict.org

Visual Storytelling
Isis-WICCE’s annual report in images

“Pray for Healing of the World”
Painting by David Chapman

Homem na Molduraby Humberto Pateguana
ARMS into ART
a virtual exhibition in cooperation with Núcleo de Arte in Maputo, Mozambique
http://www.africaserver.nl/nucleo/eng/

Reflection
Reflections?
How do images impact your empathy for the other?
Examples?

Oral Storytelling
Amos, “If I were in their shoes”
U2, Peace on Earth

Alternative Access
Cell-based stories/reports
[murmur] (global)
Freedom Fone, Zimbabwe
Podcasts
Radio

Reflection
Reflections?
How does audio impact your empathy for the other?
Examples?

Power of Forgiveness
Jean Paul Samputu, www.cryrwanda.org
“Forgiveness is a powerful weapon against terrorism and atrocities”

Positive Examples
http://www.oneworld.am/diversity/photos.html
Audio slideshow

Reflection
Reflections?
How do audiovisuals impact your empathy for the other?
Examples?

Social Media
Amazing new media project, http://oneworld.am/diversity/
Blog
Maps
Multimedia
Twitter
Explore it!

Challenging Assumptions
“Armenians, please come back and claim your church”AdnanHajizade, Azeri Video Blogger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXjNWWt4OSs
“For Armenian Facebook users, this was their first exposure to an image of the “enemy” at odds with that usually portrayed in local media.”Twitter Diplomacy, Onnik Krikorian 2 February 2010
http://tol.org/client/article/21135-twitter-diplomacy.html

Blogs
“Twitter Diplomacy” – Web 2.0 tools bridge closed borders
between Armenia and Azerbaijan
“It was a virtual hand of friendship extended across a closed border and a 15-year-old cease-fire line.”
http://tol.org/client/article/21135-twitter-diplomacy.html

Twitter
Share or read real-time news
Search #hashtags or keywords
Follow organizations or people
Create or follow lists

Ushahidi
Online crisis mapping system
www.ushahidi.com
Tweets
Emails
Web reports
Maps

Ushahidi
Deployed in Kenya, DRC, Gaza, etc.
Saved lives in Haiti earthquake, 2010
Thousands of life-and-death text messages
Skype with Search and Rescue (SAR)
Emails from the World Food Program
SOUTHCOM’s video footage from military drones

Ushahidi Haiti
Crowdsourcing the Impossible: Ushahidi Haiti http://en.oreilly.com/where2010/public/schedule/detail/14618
Tufts map steered action amid chaosBoston Globe, April 5, 2010http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2010/04/05/tufts_project_delivered_aid_to_quake_victims/

Debate & Dialogue
www.debategraph.org
Conflicts are complex, controversial
Graphicaltool to buildclarity,consensus

DebateGraph
Content/context such as:
History
Alternatives
Arguments for/against

Reflection
Reflections?
What does social media add to the picture?
What else is possible?
Examples?
Questions?

Resources
Global Voices (www.globalvoicesonline.org)
Aggregates & translates blogs, podcasts, video
http://tv.OneWorld.net
http://radio.OneWorld.net
FastStone Image Viewer, www.faststone.org

Resources
Peace and Collaborative Development Network http://www.internationalpeaceandconflict.org
MiroslavVolf, The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World
Remembrance vs forgiving/forgetting
Reconciliation vs justice

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Communication for Peace: How Digital Technologies can Enhance Empathy and Dialogue

by FluidIT Solutions on Dec 12, 2010

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