Promoting Best Practice: Guidelines on Media Engagement in Conflict-Affected Societies
Between 2016 and 2018, Dr. Cheryl Lawther led an AHRC Early Career grant on 'Voice, Agency and Blame: Victimhood and the Imagined Community in Northern Ireland'. As part of this project, the research team were acutely aware of the challenges faced by victims and survivors in Northern Ireland in respect to the exercise of their voices in the media and the potential for the capture and abuse of traumatic memories. A key part of the project became the creation of two sets of guidelines which seek to promote a step-change in how victims' voices are articulated, used and represented in the media.
The project led to the production and publication of two sets of guidelines - one for victims and survivors on how best to engage with the media and one for journalists, editors and journalism educators on how best to engage with victims and legacy issues. Links to the guidelines which can be downloaded and distributed are as follows: