Media, war, conflict resolution conference focus

BOWLING GREEN, O.—International journalists and scholars will engage with Bowling Green State University faculty and students this fall to explore the interconnections among the media and the complicated political roles journalists play worldwide in fomenting or preventing war, and in fostering the dialogue needed for conflict resolution.

The Conference on Media, War and Conflict Resolution will be held Sept. 17-19 at the Bowen-Thompson Student Union. Top speakers include major award winners such as Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes, on nuclear issues; Chris Hedges, author and New York Times war correspondent; Robert Parry of Consortiumnews.com, and George Esper of the Associated Press, who was a Vietnam War correspondent.

Also participating are influential academics who study media coverage of war, including Daya Thussu of the University of Westminster and executive editor of the Sage journal Global Media Communication, and Andrew Hoskins of the University of Warwick and executive editor of the Sage Journal on Media, War and Conflict.

Early bird registration for the conference provides a substantial discount for those who sign up by July 15.

Also at the conference, panel sessions on peer-reviewed papers will feature both established and emerging young scholars who offer contemporary analyses of media, war and conflict resolution. A pre-conference workshop on Sept. 17 showcases research by BGSU faculty on educators' roles in peace and justice communication. The conference also marks the start of the new Peace and Conflict Studies program and minor at BGSU.

Conference participants can also look forward to other related activities. The Gish Theater’s International Film Series will be presenting films that tie in with the conference themes of the media’s role in war, conflict and peacemaking.

The event is the brainchild of Dr. Oliver Boyd-Barrett, director of the School of Communication Studies and a professor of interpersonal communication, and Dr. Marc Simon, former chair and a professor of political science who has recently returned from a year of teaching and research in Austria that focused on many of the conference themes. Their goal was to organize a conference that would showcase the interdisciplinary talents of BGSU faculty members on those topics.

To learn more about the conference, visit http://scs.bgsu.edu/mwcrConf/index.php.

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(Posted July 07, 2008 )