Ohio University to Provide Media Training to Indonesian Broadcasters Through State Department Grant

July, 2007. An Ohio University project funded by a U.S. Department of State grant will facilitate an exchange between Indonesian and American journalists with the goal of raising professional standards in the reporting of issues of cultural and ethnic diversity and conflict by local TV journalists in Indonesia. The $248,000 grant will bring TV journalists from Indonesia to Ohio to study how U.S. media cover conflict and ethnic and cultural diversity in their communities and will allow a group of Ohio TV journalists to travel to Indonesia to learn how their counterparts there report on such issues.

The State Department grant for “people-to-people” educational exchanges will enable Indonesian journalists to learn directly from the experiences of their U.S. colleagues in reporting on issues that divide communities. Ohio University’s Center for Southeast Asia Studies, working with the Center for Research on Inter-Group Conflict and Conflict Management at the University of Indonesia and the leading journalists’ advocacy group, the Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (AJI), will select 18 participants through an open competition designed to ensure balance in gender, region, religion and ethnicity, and between government and non-government TV. The project will begin with a one-week workshop in March 2007 in Jakarta on conflict reporting led by Ohio University journalism professor Mary Rogus. In late June participants will come to Ohio University for a two-week seminar at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, followed by three-week internships at TV stations in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton and Zanesville.

While in the U.S. each Indonesian journalist will produce a feature-length story on cultural and ethnic diversity and conflict resolution. The Indonesian journalists will be engaged in the daily work of their U.S. counterparts including: accompanying reporters and videographers as they cover stories on cultural and ethnic issues and community conflict; observing the coverage of community meetings and forums; attending daily newsroom meetings and meeting with assignment editors and producers; meetings with journalists from other media outlets to discuss how cultural and ethnic issues are covered, and the pressures faced by journalists; and meetings with local government officials and representatives from ethnic associations and community groups.

Six Ohio TV journalists will undertake one-week consultancies at the participants’ stations between September 2007 and March 2008.

Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country (225 million), has the largest Muslim population in the world. Since the overthrow of President Soeharto in 1998, cultural, religious and ethnic issues have been politicized, and the country has experienced regional and inter-communal conflicts, often with multiple causes. Rival groups have used the media to rally support and occasionally to incite conflict.

The end of authoritarian rule resulted in a media boom, and an increase in the number of regional and local TV and radio stations. TV has become increasingly influential in delivering news and framing issues of cultural and ethnic diversity and conflict. However, many TV journalists lack training or experience, particularly in the reporting of sensitive or potentially divisive issues. Most training efforts have focused on radio and print journalists.

As a US Department of Education designated Title VI National Resource Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Ohio University’s Southeast Asian Studies program provides instruction in language and area studies at the university as well as outreach to students, teachers and residents across the state and beyond. The University has extensive partnerships in Indonesia. In 2000 Ohio University partnered with the University of Indonesia to establish the Center for Research on Inter-group Relations and Conflict Resolution (CERIC) in Depok, Indonesia with support from the Asia Foundation. Ohio University and CERIC were awarded a U.S. Department of State grant to develop training-of-trainer workshops on local-level conflict management, democratic dialogue, tolerance education, and the role of media in reporting on conflict in 2001. Ohio’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies has also facilitated citizen exchanges between Indonesia and the United States through an inter-religious dialogue project funded by the U.S. State Department.

Source: http://www.internationalstudies.ohio.edu/news-events/newsletter/newsbriefs-01.htm