Time: 12:00-14:00

Moderator: Nick Thorpe, BBC

Venue: Popper Room, Central European University

Address: 9 Nador utca H-1054, Budapest

What is the power of the journalist to shape a community’s self-image?

What is the situation in Hungary when media cover racial, ethnic and cultural tensions and violence?
What are some factors that might make the media coverage more helpful to all sides in a community that is experiencing racial tensions?

Workshop sponsored by the U.S. Embassy, CEU Center for Communication Studies, the Hungarian Editors Forum, and the Center for Independent Journalism

USA documentary filmmaker Patrice O’Neill shares her experiences with divided communities in the USA, including the role of media before and after neo-Nazi marches, hate crimes and violence. We see film clips and discuss together the power of media to make these situations better or worse in Hungary.

Patrice O’Neill’s first 1995 Not In Our Town documentary on American public television showed the role of the media in Billings, Montana when skinheads were challenging Native Americans, Jews and other minorities and the violence escalated. O’Neill has since created more award-winning films using recent case studies, dealing with high school bullying and racial, ethnic and cultural violence.

O’Neill will share strategies for the role of media in building inclusive, safe communities. Her project is used now in 70 different U.S. cities and towns that have experienced tensions or violence, in high schools in Capetown, South Africa, and in other countries, including Ukraine. Videos can be downloaded and more information is available at the Not In Our Town website.

Schedule:

12:00 Welcome and Introduction: Ellen Hume, former White House correspondent, Wall Street Journal, currently Annenberg Fellow in Civic Media, Center for Media and Communication Studies, CEU.

12:10: Community activist and filmmaker Patrice O’Neill presents some film clips describing some case studies of hate crimes and community tensions in the USA, including what role different media played.

12:45: Roundtable Discussion with Hungarian journalists

Simultaneous translation: English-Hungarian, courtesy of the Embassy of Norway

Please RSVP by clicking here to Anna Katona, U.S. Embassy