Communication in a Time of Crisis 4/2020 - WACC Global
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4/2020
Communication in a
Time of Crisis
Media Development is published quarterly by the
World Association for Christian Communication
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motes communication as a basic human right,
essential to people’s dignity and community. Root- Editor: Philip Lee
ed in Christian faith, WACC works with all those
denied the right to communicate because of status, Editorial Consultants
identity, or gender. It advocates full access to infor- Embert Charles (Chairperson of the Msgr. Patrick An-
mation and communication, and promotes open thony Folk Research Centre (FRC) of Saint Lucia)
and diverse media. WACC strengthens networks Clifford G. Christians (University of Illinois,
of communicators to advance peace, understanding Urbana-Champaign, USA).
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Published in Canada
ISSN 0143-5558
2 Media Development 4/2020
a
Vol. LXVI 4/2020
4 Editorial 35 Covid-19 en la isla y sus
repercusiones
5 Actions, consequences,
José Luis Soto
remembrances: Reflections on
the coronavirus pandemic
37 Internet, una aliada para
Chris Arthur
garantizar los derechos
humanos durante crisis Covid-19
9 Covid-19, social exclusion and
Article 19
digital inclusion
Philip Lee
39 How innovative news outlets are
meeting the needs of immigrant
13 Advocating a gender-equal post-
communities
pandemic world
Center for Community Media
Marites N. Sison
43 The Internet is becoming a
17 Covid-19 : Le déchainement des
battlefield
crises
Daví Nelson Betts
KPALLA Mathilde
45 Repensando la comunicación
20 Hacia dónde mirar en tiempos
ecuménica desde el legado de
de crisis y pandemias
las comunidades proféticas
Leonardo Félix
Rolando Pérez
23 En México, la pandemia silenció
51 Open letter against hate speech
las voces de las personas
and incitement to discrimination
migrantes y refugiadas
and violence
Marie-Pia Rieublanc
Office of the United Nations High
26 Battling the “pandemic of Commissioner for Human Rights
misinformation”
53 On the screen
Christina Pazzanese
29 Intersectionality, community,
and memory of a just future
Glory E. Dharmaraj
32 Covid-19: Aquellos efectos
adversos de los que no se habla
David Morales Alba
3 Media Development 4/2020
EDITORIAL Even a cursory search of the Internet
reveals a plethora of information platforms,
pamphlets, guidebooks, and research studies
Fifty-five years after the death of the French
covering multiple angles and initiatives related
author Albert Camus, and at a time when Ebola
to Covid-19 – an avalanche itself described
was raging in West Africa, the British journalist
by some as an “information pandemic”. The
Ed Vulliamy wrote a glowing tribute about one
double-edged nature of new information
of the writer’s best-known books first published
and communication technologies (NICTs)
in 1947. “Of all Camus’ novels, none described
and social media, with their advantages and
man’s confrontation – and cohabitation – with
disadvantages, has become self-evident –
death so vividly and on such an epic scale as La
especially because lives are at stake.
Peste, translated as The Plague.”1
In 2019, Taiwan was ranked the ninth most
When Covid-19 reared its ugly head in
technological and 13th most digitally competi-
late 2019, it was no surprise to see many people
tive nation in the world. Its response to Covid-19
turning to The Plague for inspiration about how
appears to have been exemplary, positively aided
to respond to the pandemic. Undoubtedly, in
and abetted by NICTs:
years to come, a great many books, plays, films,
and works of art will take as their theme what
“Bottom-up information sharing, public-private
we now recognize as a global trauma.
partnerships, ‘hacktivism’ (activism through
From a broader communications
the building of quick-and-dirty but effective
perspective, sustained efforts by public service
media in many countries to provide accurate, proofs of concept for online public services),
trustworthy and life-saving information about and participatory collective action have been
Covid-19 had to contend with government central to the country’s success in coordinating
confusion, ineptitude, and in some cases blatant a consensual and transparent set of responses
denial. Mixed messages regularly appeared to the coronavirus. A recent report from the
in the mass media together with rumours, Stanford University School of Medicine doc-
distortions and lies on social media. uments 124 distinct interventions that Taiwan
In contrast and in the global South, implemented with remarkable speed. Many
community media (especially radio) took of these interventions bubbled into the public
the lead in supplying information that was sector through community initiatives, hacka-
more reliable. Development experts have long thons, and digital deliberation on the vTaiwan
understood community media’s edge when it digital democracy platform, on which almost
comes to tackling misinformation and mistrust. half the country’s population participates. (The
Community media also have the ear of the platform enables large-scale hacktivism, civic
people: deliberation, and scaling up of initiatives in
an orderly and largely consensual manner.) A
“To be useful, information must be tailored to
decentralized community of participants used
the intended audience. It must respond to peo-
tools such as Slack and HackMD to refine suc-
ple’s questions and concerns, not just give them
cessful projects.”3
instructions. And it must be clearly expressed
using concepts, sentence structures and termi- The technologies used to help combat
nology that audiences are familiar with. Expe- the effects of Covid-19 – such as tracking
rience from previous disease outbreaks shows and tracing – inevitably raised questions of
this is a key factor for communities’ trust in privacy, social surveillance, and the risk of data
and uptake of health guidance.”2 manipulation by security services and corporate
interests. In the context of the digital society,
4 Media Development 4/2020
none of these issues was new, but the pandemic
exacerbated the sense of intrusion, loss of Actions,
privacy, and state control.
The pandemic also burrowed its way much consequences,
deeper into the human psyche than anyone
might have expected. It fractured family and
remembrances:
community. It negated social behaviour. It
isolated. It made some people more selfish
Reflections on
and others more aware. It highlighted failures
in political and economic structures. But
the coronavirus
it also began to create a sense of resilience,
togetherness, and survival.
pandemic
These are the themes of this issue of Media Chris Arthur
Development. It’s not all doom and gloom. A
great deal of positive and creative thinking is When I started to write this reflection
emerging and there is every hope that the world on how – or whether – the coronavirus
will learn from it and be a better place. pandemic would change human
As Mathilde Kpalla writes in her article:
behaviour, the first thing that came to
“The hope is that when we come out of this cri- mind was unexpected. I remembered
sis, there will be a new sense of responsibility war photographer Robert Capa’s famous
on the part of each and everyone, a sudden comment: “If your pictures aren’t good
awareness that excessive materialism has made
enough, you’re not close enough”.
so many people insensitive and blind to the
I
values of living together, such as friendship, am not a frontline medic dealing with Covid-19
solidarity, honesty, justice and love. A material- cases. I don’t look after the vulnerable elder-
ism that led to excessive pressure on nature and ly in a care home. I’m not involved in lab work
brought increasing imbalances into our society.” studying the virus and looking for a vaccine. So
far, the area in which I live has not been an in-
There is a long way to go yet, but as Dr
fection hotspot. Only a few of my friends, family,
Rieux, the hero of Albert Camus’ The Plague,
and acquaintances have fallen ill to date; fewer
remarks, “There’s no question of heroism in all
this. It’s a matter of common decency. That’s have died as a result of this disease.
an idea which may make some people smile, Of course I’m glad to have been so fortun-
but the only means of fighting a plague is – ate. But it also makes me wonder if anything I
common decency.” n write about this topic may be invalidated because
it fails to meet the literary equivalent of Capa’s
Notes criterion of quality. In other words, will my re-
1. “Albert Camus’ The Plague: a story for our, and all, times”. The
Guardian, 5 January 2015.
flections lack focus, clarity, precision because I’ve
2. “Do You Speak COVID-19?” Policy Brief (March 2020) not been close enough to the crisis for my writ-
Translators Without Borders ing to catch its significance properly?
3. “How Civic Technology Can Help Stop a Pandemic: Taiwan’s
Initial Success Is a Model for the Rest of the World” by In the circumstances, it seems best to start
Jaron Lanier and E. Glen Weyl. Foreign Affairs, 20 March by making clear the perspective from which I’m
2020.
writing – namely one that’s been relatively insu-
lated in terms of experiencing at first hand the
pain and devastation this virus has brought to
so many millions of people. Though it may cast
5 Media Development 4/2020
doubt on my competence as an expert witness, with certainty its impact on us, the nature of the
this is a perspective I very much wish to maintain. phenomenon and the point in its unfolding that
Like everyone, I’ve been affected – lock- it’s reached means that any such efforts would be
down, social distancing, new rules of interaction, highly provisional, underlain by all the unpredict-
new constraints, anxiety about falling ill myself ability of whatever’s going to happen next. It may
or seeing those I love succumbing. Covid-19 be years before we can properly gauge effects.
has taken the life of one family member, leav- We’re faced with an enormous array of problems.
ing others to grieve in isolation, deprived of the How will mask-wearing affect the emotional
physical contact that makes bereavement more development of young children? What mental
bearable. The disease has disrupted the lives of health issues will lockdown’s confinement create?
those I care about and visited devastating eco- Can schools and universities successfully mi-
nomic consequences on all of us. Employment grate their operations online, or will the learning
has been ruptured. Ordinary pleasures that we of the Covid-19 generations be compromised?
once took for granted have been suspended, How will the arts recover? Will environmental
changed, maybe lost forever. Carefully laid plans concerns be listened to or side-lined as nations
for education, travel, work have been derailed. struggle to restore their economies? How will
Personal relationships have suffered as friends the constraints on close physical contact affect
and colleagues shy away from contact. But I the making of new relationships? Will the in-
count myself incredibly fortunate nonetheless. creased virtual interaction that our digital tech-
Compared to many I’ve been lucky. nologies facilitate offer new avenues of closeness,
It would be reassuring to be able to state even intimacy, or make us feel more isolated?
plainly what the main consequences of the cor- Rather than formulating necessarily specu-
onavirus crisis are. Providing a systematic list of lative hypotheses that address the situation as
its outcomes in order of their seriousness, iden- a whole or any of its manifold specific issues, I
tifying the ways in which it has and will affect want to pinpoint some of the ways in which the
us, both as individuals and as members of larger coronavirus crisis has so far affected me. I’ve felt
groupings – family, neighbourhood, nation, spe- its impact variously, but four areas stand out as
cies – would give a measure of comfort as to our being more than just idiosyncratic tropes that
ability to understand, control, and recover from apply only to my situation. These four areas feel
this disease. But one of the most unsettling as- like straws in the wind that identify strong cur-
pects of the pandemic has been the way in which rents of influence and the direction in which
it generates uncertainties, raising many hard-to- they may take us. Far from introducing anything
answer questions. What is it safe to do? Who is novel, they all concern things I was – or should
it safe to see, to touch? Where will the next clus- have been – aware of already.
ter of infection fall? How will jobs, income, trav-
el be affected in the long-term? How many lives 1. Inequality
will Covid-19 claim in the end? Why are some Through news, social media, and the informed
people so much more susceptible than others? imagination – anchored by direct observation of
Are we close to finding a vaccine? Will it be safe? what’s happening around me in the streets and
What steps can be taken to slow transmission? In shops – it’s clear that people’s experience of the
terms of things getting back to normal, is it more virus is enormously varied and that this variation
realistic to think of months, or years, or never? is closely tied to existing inequalities. Individ-
What will a post-coronavirus world look like? ual circumstances make for exceptions to every
As I write this essay, the pandemic is still rule, but, in the main, wealth cushions the im-
raging. Much as I’d like to offer definite answers, pact of coronavirus, poverty makes it worse. A
clearly map its course and consequences, assess single parent in an inner city high-rise with no
6 Media Development 4/2020savings, no job, little if any social support, who’s back to mind repeatedly. The teaching is known
reliant on benefits and public transport, will have as “The Five Remembrances”. The first four of
a very different lockdown experience from that these state that:
of a professional couple who can continue their
highly paid jobs at home, where home is a large * I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way
detached house with garden in a pleasant suburb. to escape growing old.
An Indian migrant worker in Kolkata who falls * I am of the nature to have ill-health. There is
ill with Covid-19 as they try to get back to their no way to escape having ill-health.
home village will face hardships unknown to a
* I am of the nature to die. There is no way to
Canadian banker in Vancouver afflicted with the
escape death.
same illness. Seen more clearly, as a day-to-day
* All that is dear to me and everyone I love are
reality, the fact of inequality feels increasingly
of the nature to change. There is no way to
unfair and intolerable.
escape being separated from them.
2. Nature
4. Reliance on others
With employment suspended, social interaction
The pandemic has caused the rhythms of ordin-
limited, travel curtailed, and shopping made oc-
ary life to be suspended. People have been en-
casional and solitary, I’ve found myself – like
couraged to stay at home. Whilst this has had
many others – walking more, cycling more, do-
the potential to foster a sense of isolation – or
ing more gardening. Being outside in the natural
entrapment – it’s also led to a realization of the
world has made me more appreciative both of its
extent to which we’re reliant on others. How
beauty and its potency as a source of refreshment
would we live without key workers in farming,
and solace. But it’s also rekindled an awareness of
transport, shops, banks, post offices? Postal and
how routinely we abuse it. The absence of traffic
other deliveries and refuse collection have start-
and ambient background noise has made the de-
ed to appear in a new light. Those in the caring
light of birdsong more obvious. The slower pace
professions – whether in hospitals, care homes,
of non-motorized locomotion means that I’ve
or in the community – now seem quietly hero-
taken more notice of the trees and flowers, the
ic. It’s clear humans are a social species. Even as
animals and insects that share my world. Noti-
it isolates us the virus emphasizes the extent to
cing such things emphasizes the need to cherish
which we’re interdependent. It fosters recogni-
and protect them.
tion of the value of relationships that were previ-
ously unnoticed or taken for granted.
3. Vulnerabilities
Clearly these four areas of coronavirus’s
The fact that everyone is susceptible to this dis- impact don’t involve anything I’ve not encoun-
ease, that anyone can become infected and that, tered before. The unfairness of inequality, the
for some, their infection will be serious if not beauty and fragility of the natural world, human
life-threatening, has highlighted the fundamen- vulnerabilities, and our reliance on other people
tal vulnerabilities we all share. In the midst of – these are all things that were, or should have
ordinary health and wellbeing, it’s easy to for- been, clearly evident already. What’s new is the
get that we are mortal creatures, our lives lived way in which I’ve come to realize them so much
always alongside the threats of illness, accident, more insistently over the course of the last few
age, and death. Living in the shadow of Covid-19 months. I suspect I’m by no means alone in this
brings daily into the spotlight of attention those newfound realization of the obvious.
uncomfortable aspects of life we often prefer not
Will this heightened awareness of these
to dwell on. These aspects are nicely summed up
basic features of our world change the way in
in a Buddhist teaching that I’ve found coming
which we live in it? That’s hard to say. The fact that
7 Media Development 4/2020they’re already part of our experience yet have existence, from the needy who are always with
often had little impact on our behaviour gives us?
little ground for optimism; the fact that they’re The fifth of “The Five Remembrances”
so potently resurgent now suggests that maybe, states that:
just maybe, we’ll find them harder to ignore. If
they remain in the foreground of the mind, per-
* My actions are my only true belongings. I
haps it will make for a kinder, more equitable,
cannot escape the consequences of my actions.
environmentally responsible and reflective mode
My actions are the ground on which I stand.
of living. If our consciousness returns to being
dimmed and blurred by pre-coronavirus habits
of living, this change in the tempo of the psyche The actions of which coronavirus is a con-
will no doubt be forgotten and the metronome sequence are still a matter of debate. It’s hard to
of materialism and consumption will make us judge the extent to which it’s simply a natural
its galley slaves again. Perhaps we are standing phenomenon and the extent to which – in its
at a kind of crossroads of the spirit. Our choice spread if not its origin – it’s something caused,
of which direction to take will have momentous or exacerbated, by the way humans have acted.
consequences. In terms of the control of its transmission, the
Robert Capa’s advice may hold for taking actions of individuals are of paramount import-
war photographs. His equation of proximity and ance. All of us now have a duty to act in cer-
quality has a convincing ring to it. Being there, tain ways and not to act in others. Perhaps this
in the thick of the action, up close and person- newfound focus on individual responsibility
al seems like a guarantor of authenticity. But is will make us more mindful of the impact of our
this always the best perspective from which to actions; perhaps the common ground on which
view things? Sometimes we need to stand back all of us stand, and on which all of Earth’s crea-
to get a better picture, pause before reaching a tures depend, will in future be treated with the
conclusion, wait until the dust of the present respect it warrants. n
settles. Not surprisingly, given its impact on the
world, the coronavirus pandemic has generated Note
Translation of the Five Remembrances by Thich Nhat Hanh,
a massive amount of commentary and analysis. The Heart of Buddhist Teaching, Parallax, Berkeley: 1998,
There have been numerous think-pieces like this p.116.
one, articles, scientific papers, TV and radio pro- Irish essayist Chris Arthur can be reached at chrisarthur784[at]
grammes, blogs, not to mention countless per- gmail.com and discovered at www.chrisarthur.org
sonal exchanges via social media and email. No
doubt this will soon be joined by a raft of books.
Hopefully this torrent of communication
will not only help us to see clearly the way the
pandemic has affected us and how best to counter
it, but also how it offers an opportunity to rethink
and reform the way we’re living. Partly because
Capa’s dictum has been in my mind, and partly
because issues of closeness and distance are so
central to controlling transmission of the virus,
I hope that any reflective process will include a
kind of philosophy of proximities. At what dis-
tance should we stand from each other, from na-
ture, from the fundamental truths that define our
8 Media Development 4/2020Covid-19, social Occasionally new prisoners join you, usually for
a short time. They tell you the strangest tales of
exclusion and what is happening outside, stories which con-
fuse you. You are glad when they leave. Then
digital inclusion you appreciate all the more the reassuring voice
of the prison governor over the intercom.
Philip Lee
This worldview from prison is a metaphor of
A paradox was evident during our news culture. We see and hear very little of
the coronavirus pandemic. People what is really going on in the world, and what
turned to digital technologies to be in we see and hear are unconnected fragments of
communication and yet felt increasingly an often distorted reality. Again, the real trag-
out of communication. Self-isolating edy of this situation is that we consider it nor-
people became distanced from the socio- mal, that, like prisoners, we trust the media’s
intercom system.”1
cultural environment in which they
were accustomed to live and it began to Surrounding the bubble of news and today’s
appear alien. To adapt the well-known social media is the habitat of community, bound-
ed by upbringing, education, language, culture,
saying from L. P. Hartley’s novel The
and social mores. It offers security, stability, and
Go-Between (1953), the present became the psychological comfort of shared values.
a foreign country, where they did things The anthropologist Edith Turner, elabor-
differently. ating on the work of her partner Victor Turner,
has written about communitas: the sense felt by a
M edia specialist Michael Traber once de-
scribed a prison culture of public com-
munication, illustrating it with a parable:
group of people when their life together takes on
full meaning:
“Communitas comes through the readiness of
“Try to imagine yourself as an inmate in a prison. the people – perhaps from necessity – to rid
In fact you have been in prison all your life. You themselves of their concern for status and de-
were born there and grew up there. You live pendence on structures, and see their fellows
there with many other prisoners. But neither as they are… Many circumstances can produce
they nor yourself really know why you are there. communitas. It often comes in the direst mo-
ments of the life of a person or society.”2
You catch glimpses of the outside world, and
The coronavirus pandemic has clearly cre-
you wonder what it is like out there. But the
ated a sense of communitas at different levels: the
fact that you really don’t know does not worry
local and the response of neighbours to people
you excessively. Because you consider the state
in need; the national and the collective response
of being a prisoner as normal, the prison your of health and social workers; the global and in-
natural habitat. As prisoners, you don’t have creased recognition of a common humanity
newspapers or radio and television sets. But whose sufferings are closely tied to – exacerbat-
there is an intercom system in your prison. The ed by – political and economic systems. What
governor tells you everything that’s going on emerged was a certain sense of global solidar-
outside. He should know; he is well informed. ity, even while people, communities, and nations
struggled to overcome structural deficits and
9 Media Development 4/2020political inertia. ent economy.”3
At the same time, the very sense of com-
munitas was challenged by physical distancing Guterres quite rightly calls for greater in-
both immediate (family, friends, neighbours) and clusivity in political and social systems that are
figurative (fragmented nations and a global vil- able to respond more swiftly and adequately to
lage made distant by travel restrictions). While today’s challenges. The coronavirus pandemic
physical distancing was relatively easy in so- exacerbated existing inequalities while creating
called developed nations, in countries of the deep suspicion and mistrust. Where did it come
global South, where conditions are radically dif- from? How might it have been prevented? Why
ferent, problems became apparent. For example, were measures not taken sooner to counter its
in many rural contexts water scarcity meant that spread? These legitimate questions were aggra-
basic hygiene such as frequent washing of hands vated by xenophobia, racism, denial by nation-
was impossible. al leaders, and once again by the scandal of fake
news spread by social media.
Annie Game, Executive Director of IFEX,
Building more inclusive economies and soci- the global network of organisations promot-
eties ing and defending freedom of expression, com-
The world may still be a global village, but bar- mented:
riers have now been erected that it will take time
to remove. Paradoxically, separation and isola- “Despite efforts to provide timely fact-checking
tion, which deny a primordial need for human and some form of responsible content modera-
warmth and touch, have also improved our view tion, it is much easier to spread misinformation
of the “other”, the “outsider”, and our sense of than to counter it. The lie goes viral; the correc-
human compassion. Many have been struck tion generally does not. The problem is exacer-
by the words of UN secretary general António
bated by some world leaders who are exploiting
Guterres:
this crisis and the elevated platform it gives
them to ramp up their rhetoric vilifying the
“We simply cannot return to where we were
media – sowing confusion and distrust among
before Covid-19 struck, with societies un-
people already reeling from the pandemic and
necessarily vulnerable to crisis. The pandemic
hungry for answers.”
has reminded us, in the starkest way possible,
of the price we pay for weaknesses in health What Michael Traber called the ideologic-
systems, social protections and public services. al prison of public communication – to which
It has underscored and exacerbated inequali- must be added the technological prism of social
ties, above all gender inequity, laying bare the media – worked against the circulation of trust-
way in which the formal economy has been worthy information and knowledge that might
sustained on the back of invisible and unpaid have saved lives. In addition, in a number of
care labour. It has highlighted ongoing human countries, e.g. China, Iran, and Thailand, govern-
rights challenges, including stigma and vio- ments failed to uphold people’s right to freedom
lence against women. of expression, vilifying and taking action against
journalists and healthcare workers. This ultim-
ately limited effective communication about the
Now is the time to redouble our efforts to build onset of the disease and undermined trust. In re-
more inclusive and sustainable economies and sponse, Human Rights Watch made the follow-
societies that are more resilient in the face of ing recommendations:
pandemics, climate change and other global
challenges. The recovery must lead to a differ-
10 Media Development 4/2020* Governments should fully respect the rights that 88% of the claims appeared on social media
to freedom of expression and access to in- platforms, compared with 9% on television or
formation, and only restrict them as inter- 8% in news outlets. A key finding was:
national standards permit.
* Governments should ensure that the infor- “In terms of formats, most (59%) of the misin-
mation they provide to the public regarding formation in our sample involves various forms
Covid-19 is accurate, timely, and consistent of reconfiguration, where existing and often
with human rights principles. This is import- true information is spun, twisted, recontextual-
ant for addressing false and misleading infor- ised, or reworked. Less misinformation (38%)
mation. was completely fabricated.”
* All information about Covid-19 should be
accessible and available in multiple languages, A separate survey by the Pew Research
including for those with low or no literacy. Center, “Nearly three-in-ten Americans believe
This should include qualified sign language Covid-19 was made in a lab”, said that, “About
interpretation for televised announcements; half of U.S. adults (48%) report having come
websites that are accessible to people with vi- across at least some news and information about
sion, hearing, learning, and other disabilities; Covid-19 that seemed completely made up, with
and telephone-based services that have text 12% saying they have seen a lot of it and 35%
capabilities for people who are deaf or hard saying they have seen some.”
of hearing. Communications should utilize In April 2020, journalists wrote an open let-
plain language to maximize understanding. ter titled “Rupert Murdoch, Fox News’ Covid-19
Age appropriate information should be pro- misinformation is a danger to public health” (The
vided to children to help them take steps to Guardian, 20 April 2020) calling on them to en-
protect themselves. sure that the information they deliver is based on
* Health data is particularly sensitive, and the scientific facts:
publication of information online can pose
a significant risk to affected persons and in “The basic purpose of news organizations is to
particular people who are already in positions discover and tell the truth. This is especially
of vulnerability or marginalization in society. necessary, and obvious, amid a public health
Rights-based legal safeguards should govern crisis. Television bears a particular responsibil-
the appropriate use and handling of personal ity because even more millions than usual look
health data. there for reliable information. Inexcusably, Fox
* Reliable and unfettered access to the internet News has violated elementary canons of jour-
should be maintained and steps should be nalism. In so doing, it has contributed to the
taken to ensure internet access be available to spread of a grave pandemic.”
people with low incomes.
However, elsewhere Covid-19 brought out
the very best in public service media. Many are
Social media platforms change tack the television and radio stations and newspapers
US-based social media platforms, in stark con- that focused in depth on how institutions and in-
trast to how they have dealt with misinformation dividuals were dealing and coping with the pan-
in the past, competed to be responsible and reli- demic. It was not solely a matter of health advice
able sources of information about the coronavirus. and statistics. Many also focused on the psych-
Yet misinformation still continued to mutate and ological impact on people and communities un-
spread. Research carried out by Oxford’s Reuters able to care for each other, their loved ones, and
Institute looked at the spread of 225 false or mis- those who succumbed to the virus.
leading claims about coronavirus and discovered The Financial Times urged that the burden
11 Media Development 4/2020of the pandemic should be shared fairly. Re- world”, The Guardian, 2 April 2020.
4. “In a sickly time”. FTWeekend, 11 April 2020.
viewing moral codes held by religious traditions,
the newspaper (11 April 2020) cited Rabbi Hil- Philip Lee is General Secretary of the World Association
lel (“That which is hateful to you, do not do to for Christian Communication (WACC) and Editor of its
international journal Media Development. His publications
your fellow”), Jesus Christ (“Love your enemies”), include The Democratization of Communication (ed.) (1995),
and Immanuel Kant (“Act according to the max- Requiem: Here’s Another Fine Mass You’ve Gotten Me Into (2001);
Many Voices, One Vision: The Right to Communicate in Practice (ed.)
im that you would wish all rational people to fol- (2004); Communicating Peace: Entertaining Angels Unawares (ed.)
low”). Recognizing that the threats which unite (2008); Public Memory, Public Media, and the Politics of Justice
us also divide us – rich and poor, young and old (ed. with Pradip N. Thomas) (2012); and Expanding Shrinking
Communication Spaces (ed. with Lorenzo Vargas) (2020).
– the editors concluded:
“Within all the moral traditions that insist
upon the universal nature of our obligations to
one another, the answer seems quite clear: we
should act as if we really believed that ‘we are Recent issues of
all in this together’. Those with the means to Media Development
do so must help everybody else cope with the
virus and with the costs of coping with it, not
only today, but in future.”
3/2020 Expanding Public Communication
It will be impossible to heal the divisions Spaces
and to shape a future in solidarity without com-
2/2020 Traditional Knowledge and Climate
munication. The same digital platforms that to- Change: Bridging the Gap
day reinforce rumour, misinformation, and fake
news can also provide what the historian Simon 1/2020 Realising Gender Equality: Progress
Schama calls “the oxygen of sociability”.4 They and Problems
can contribute to greater understanding between
4/2019 Communication Pirates of the Carib-
people, to establishing new values, and to build-
bean
ing a new sense of trust. But they will have to be
monitored and regulated by independently ap- 3/2019 MacBride+40: What Next for Media
pointed and financed bodies acting within ap- Democracy?
propriate legislation, and by civil society, which
has a vested interest in genuinely democratic 2/2019 Wanted: Sustainable Development
communication systems and in the public ac- Goal 18
countability of Big Tech. 1/2019 Brave New Digital World
Only strict oversight can guarantee a digit-
al future in which people and communities are
able to communicate with all the imagination
Media Development is provided free to
and creativity that make them human. Only
WACC Individual and Institutional Members
then will people gain a sense of communitas that
and is also available by subscription.
is truly inclusive. n
For more information visit the WACC website:
Notes www.waccglobal.org
1. Traber, Michael (1995). “Beyond patriotism: Escaping the
ideological prison”. In Javnost, Vol. 2 No. 2.
2. Turner, Edith (2012). Communitas. The Anthropology of
Collective Joy. Palgrave Macmillan.
3. “Recovery from the coronavirus crisis must lead to a better
12 Media Development 4/2020Advocating a tutions or governments in affected countries or
in preparedness phases,” said a March 6 article
gender-equal authored by Claire Wenham, Julia Smith, and
Rosemary Morgan, on behalf of the Gender and
post-pandemic Covid-19 Working Group.
Analysing how biology and gender norms
world are affecting the burden of Covid-19 “is a fun-
damental step to understanding the primary and
Marites N. Sison secondary effects of a health emergency on dif-
ferent individuals and communities, and for cre-
A sampling of news headlines, five ating effective, equitable policies and interven-
months after the WHO declared tions,” they said.
Covid-19 a pandemic, shows media They argued that it was not enough to ac-
count for immunological differences between
and institutions finally catching up the sexes, citing that data from China’s State
to the gender dimensions of the novel Council Information Office – which showed that
coronavirus: Covid-19 crisis could more than 90% of health-care workers in Hubei
set women back decades, experts fear; province are women – emphasized “the gendered
Why Covid-19 is a disaster for gender nature of the health workforce and the risk that
predominantly female health workers incur.”
equality; Decades of progress on gender
School closures to stem Covid-19 trans-
equality in the workplace at risk of mission in China, Hong Kong, Italy, and South
vanishing; Women essential in fight Korea – the first countries where the virus spread
against pandemic. – were also bound to have “a differential effect on
women, who provide most of the informal care
N ews media’s initial preoccupation with the
five journalistic Ws – Who, What, When,
Where, and Why – of the disease was under-
within families, with the consequence of limiting
their work and economic opportunities,” they
said.
standable. The global health and economic crisis Lockdowns would pose “financial chal-
spawned by the virus was unlike anything most lenges and uncertainty for mostly female for-
of us had ever experienced before, except, per- eign domestic workers, many of whom travel in
haps, those who lived through the global influ- Southeast Asia between the Philippines, Indo-
enza pandemic of 1957-58. nesia, Hong Kong, and Singapore,” they said.
The first accounts of how the novel corona- Gendered implications of quarantine must also
virus affects men and women differently focused be considered, given differences in women and
mainly on medical outcomes. Initial studies that men’s physical, cultural, security and sanitary
emerged from China’s Hubei province, where needs, they added.
Covid-19 cases were first reported, noted that The authors also wondered why women
the virus appeared to be more fatal in men than “have not been fully incorporated into global
women. health security surveillance, detection and pre-
By early March 2020, the medical journal vention mechanism,” given their frequent front-
Lancet was among the first to call out the “con- line interactions with communities.
cerning” absence of policies and public health
efforts that address “the gendered impacts” of Women on the frontlines
the disease: “We are not aware of any gender Since many governments, institutions and people
analysis of the outbreak by global health insti- likely did not anticipate the extent to which the
13 Media Development 4/2020virus would upend the world as we know it, many ed, these weren’t informing Covid-19 responses
failed to optimize what would have been an op- worldwide.
portune time – International Women’s Day on The Lancet piece had underscored the same
March 8 – to call attention to the impacts of thing earlier, noting that during the 2014 to 2016
Covid-19 on women. Ebola outbreak in West Africa, women were
Except for some media, like BBC World, “more likely to be infected by the virus, given their
which published a story about how the “virus up- predominant roles as caregivers within families
heaval is hitting women in Asia” and the Amer- and as frontline healthcare workers.”
ican news website, Axios, which reported a rise Past outbreaks had also demonstrated that
in domestic violence cases in China during the women were “less likely than men to have power
quarantine, most stories that day focused on in decision-making around the outbreak, and
commemorative rallies and how they were scaled their needs were largely unmet,” it stressed.
back because of Covid-19. Lessons that should have been learned
The Axios article was an offshoot of a story during past outbreaks clearly weren’t practiced.
published March 2 by an online Chinese news Similar to what happened during the 2015 to
site, Sixth Tone, which reported a surge in do- 2016 Zika virus epidemic, critical resources and
mestic violence cases in February, weeks after attention were diverted away from women’s re-
several cities were put on lockdown to contain productive and sexual health in many countries
outbreaks. The BBC World article cited similar during the Covid-19 pandemic.
concerns raised by The Lancet – the double bu-
rden of longer work shifts and home care, the Violence Against Women (VAW): “A shadow
physical and emotional toll exacted on women pandemic”
frontline workers, and the precarious work status
On March 26, UN Women Deputy Executive
of migrant domestic helpers. It also named do-
Director Anita Bhatia lamented that “while
mestic violence and Covid-19’s long-term eco-
some voices have flagged the impacts on women,
nomic impact on women as major concerns. “The
gender concerns are not yet shaping the decisions
hashtag #AntiDomesticViolenceDuringEpi-
that mainly male leaders are making.”
demic has been discussed more than 3,000
times on the Chinese social media platform Sina It is “striking how many of the key deci-
Weibo,” it noted. sion-makers in the process of designing and
executing the pandemic response are men,” she
Days after the WHO declared Covid-19
added. While there were “a few shining exam-
a pandemic on March 11, more independent
ples of women Heads of State or Government,
groups, NGOs and institutions began sounding
women are conspicuous by their absence in de-
the alarm about the “high risk” roles played by
cision-making fora in this pandemic.” Statistics
women during the pandemic, citing estimates
from Women in Global Health bear this out; for
that between 70 to 77% of the world’s healthcare
example, while 70% of the global health work-
workers are women; and 83% of the social care
force fighting on the frontlines of the pandemic
workforce. Women, they declared, are on the
are women, only 20% of the WHO emergency
frontlines of the fight against Covid-19.
committee on Covid-19 are women. Meanwhile,
A week later, The Atlantic declared Covid-19
women leaders – who make up less than 7% of
“a disaster for feminism,” and decried “the West’s
the world’s leaders – have won praise for how
failure to learn from history.” Academics who
they managed the pandemic in their own coun-
studied the Ebola crisis, and past outbreaks like
tries.
SARS, swine flu, and bird flu had found that
WHO would later issue guidelines on
“they had deep, long-lasting effects on gender
Covid-19 and violence against women (VAW),
equality,” it noted. And yet, the article lament-
noting that “health workers, the majority of
14 Media Development 4/2020whom are women in many settings, may be at ing to human rights activists. However, Mexican
risk for violence in their homes or in the work- President Andrés Manuel López Obrador de-
place.” VAW, said the WHO, “is a serious prob- nied this, as well as his own interior secretary’s
lem that may be exacerbated when health sys- report that the first six months of 2020 had seen
tems are under stress.” a 46% increase in emergency distress calls re-
More Western media began paying atten- porting domestic violence.
tion as activists reported an uptick in domestic
violence cases after lockdowns were imposed and “The biggest setback in gender equality for a
governments urged people to “stay home, save generation”
lives.” The economic fallout triggered by Covid-19 has
On April 6, UN Women issued a state- severe implications for gender equality, experts
ment calling violence against women and girls “a warned. “Data shows that both women and men
shadow pandemic.” Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, are experiencing downward changes in the avail-
Executive Director of UN Women, said domes- ability of economic resources, but not equally,”
tic shelters and helplines around the world were according to a rapid assessment survey conducted
reporting higher calls for help as more countries by UN Women with governments and mobile
went on lockdown. “Helplines in Singapore and network operators in 11 Asia-Pacific countries.
Cyprus have registered an increase in calls by “Most sources of income have decreased for at
more than 30%,” she said. “In Australia, 40% of least 50% of the population. The gender gaps
frontline workers in a New South Wales survey in income reductions are largest in family busi-
reported increased requests for help with vio- nesses, remittances, properties and savings, with
lence that was escalating in intensity.” women at a disadvantage.”
Women’s rights activists and civil soci- Women, regardless of whether they were
ety organizations in Argentina, Canada, France, employed in the formal or informal sector, suf-
Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the fered the largest drops in income from paid jobs
United States also flagged a “heightened demand (65% compared to 56% of men), the study said.
for emergency shelter” for women and children They also had a larger share of reduction in paid
fleeing domestic violence, said Mlambo-Ngcuka. hours (50% compared to 35% of men).
Domestic violence cases – already at an alarm-
The pandemic had a disproportionate
ing rate before the pandemic – are reported to
negative impact on women because among the
have increased by 20% as people were trapped at
hardest hit were the restaurant, retail, hospitality,
home with their abuser during the lockdown.
and tourism industries, “service occupations with
The rise in domestic violence during the high female employment shares,” said a prelim-
pandemic was not surprising, according to ex- inary research by the National Bureau of Eco-
perts. “Times of economic uncertainty, civil un- nomic Research in the U.S.
rest and disaster are linked to a myriad of risk
“From an economic perspective, low-paid,
factors for increased violence against women and
young, working-class women are known to be
children,” said a paper published by the Center
hit the hardest,” Natasha Mudhar, global chief
for Global Development. “Pandemics are no ex-
executive of The World We Want, an enterprise
ception.” The 2008 global financial crisis also saw
working to accelerate the achievement of the
a jump in domestic violence cases, it noted.
UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, told the
And yet, some governments were slow BBC. This inequality is compounded by a gender
to respond. In Mexico, where violence against pay gap, said Mudhar.
women and children are not uncommon, “a net-
The year 2020 was supposed to celebrate the
work of shelters in the country reported an 80%
25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and
increase in the number of distress calls,” accord-
Platform for Action, described by UN Women
15 Media Development 4/2020as “the most visionary agenda for women’s rights women and for not featuring women as experts
and empowerment everywhere.” Instead of and frontline actors. “Where are the women ex-
marking gender equality gains, experts are now perts on Covid-19? Mostly missing,” lamented
lamenting big losses because of Covid-19. an article in the British Medical Journal, which
“We are experiencing the biggest setback observed that men were dominating public and
in gender equality for a generation,” writes Sofia academic discourse about Covid-19 and deci-
Sprechmann, secretary-general of the humani- sions about how to handle the pandemic. It cited
tarian agency Care International, in an article a University of London study which found “2.7
published by the World Economic Forum. “This male experts to every woman expert interviewed
pandemic is having a deep impact on women on six UK flagship news programmes” between
and is throwing away decades of hard-won February and March.
battles both in terms of gender equality and While there is so much that can be written
women’s economic rights.” She cites the impact about the pandemic, Ed Wasserman, dean of UC
on women entrepreneurs. “In Sri Lanka, 90% Berkeley’s Graduate School for Journalism, ex-
say their income has decreased and their supply pressed concern that because today’s newsrooms
chains are disrupted. In Guatemala, 96% do not have been hobbled by layoffs, the focus has been
have enough money to buy basic food items, and on breaking news rather than in-depth coverage.
the same amount say the crisis has increased un- “You’re looking at a news media complex that’s
employment in their community,” said Sprech- probably 40% weaker than it was a generation
mann. “Many of these women are now truly on ago, in terms of bodies it can put in the field to
a cliff edge, at risk of hurtling right back into tackle a difficult story,” said Wasserman.
poverty. A devastating prospect after they’ve In some cases, community media, particu-
worked so hard to succeed.” larly women’s radio, have stepped in to fill the
Again, many governments were slow on gap. Mama FM, a women-focused radio station
the uptake. Even Canada, whose government serving the underprivileged in Uganda, changed
is regarded as more committed than most to its programming to focus on the Covid-19 pan-
gender equality, is still figuring out how it can demic. In Ukraine, Hromadske Radio, a non-profit
help women get back on their feet. radio station created new programs that focused
The Prosperity Project, a new national specifically on women’s issues such as domestic
non-profit organization created in the middle violence and child care.
of the pandemic by 62 female leaders across
Canada, said it had anticipated Covid-19’s dis- Women and post-Covid-19 recovery
proportionate impact on women and has been
As governments and institutions look towards
investing in research to develop programs “to
post-Covid rebuilding, there are calls not only to
maintain women’s successful participation the
mitigate the pandemic’s devastating impact on
economy.” Funding for this research came from
women, but to put them at the front and centre
members. “Ironically, there has been no response
of continuing response, as well as recovery efforts.
from government yet,” it said in August.
Women are key to getting their commun-
ities back on their feet, said Sofia Sprechmann.
Media and Covid-19 “Women entrepreneurs have overcome so many
With regard to the role that media has played barriers to get their businesses thriving and to
during the pandemic, most news outlets have overcome poverty. And it is precisely these
been lauded for fulfilling the essential task of women that hold the power to face the gigantic
providing the public with accurate and timely in- task ahead,” she said. “We’ve seen it with the Eb-
formation. But they have also been called out for ola crisis, with women from war-torn countries,
a lack of stories about the impact of Covid-19 on and we know we will see it after this pandemic.
16 Media Development 4/2020Women can and will elevate their communities
back out of poverty, rebuilding what they have Covid-19 : Le
lost, and they urgently need our support and help.”
A UN policy brief on the impact of déchainement
Covid-19 and women noted that the social and
economic impacts of the pandemic “have creat-
des crises
ed a global crisis unparalleled in the history of KPALLA Mathilde
the United Nations – and one which requires
a whole-of-society response to match its sheer Le 11 mars 2020, l’Organisation
scale and complexity.” Mondiale de la Santé (OMS) déclarait
Any response, whether at the local, national
or international level, “will be significantly weak-
de pandémie la maladie de trouble
ened if it does not factor in the ways in which respiratoire à coronavirus, Covid-19
inequalities have made all of us more vulnerable Déjà le 06 mars 2020, le Togo a déclaré
to the impacts of the crisis. Or, if we choose to son 1er cas de contamination et le 28 mars,
simply repeat past policies and fail to use this son premier décès, à l’instar de plusieurs
moment to rebuild more equal, inclusive and re-
silient societies,” it added.
autres pays africains et du monde entier.
Civil society and grassroots organiza-
Toute la planète se retrouve ainsi face à
tions must seize this opportunity to help build a une crise sanitaire dont les effets pervers
post-pandemic world that is gender-equal. As an ont rapidement affecté tous les secteurs
initial step, they can pressure their own govern- de la vie plongeant tous les pays dans
ments, businesses, and national and international des lendemains sans précédent, pleins
institutions to apply a gender lens to continu-
ing response and recovery efforts, offer their own
d’incertitudes.
L
solutions and demand seats at the table. n a crise sanitaire à corona virus s’installe et
embrase tous les pays, et il faut prendre des
Marites N. Sison is a freelance journalist and communications dispositions pour y faire face. Dans cette lutte
consultant for WACC Global. She has more than three decades
of experience in journalism, and has reported on human rights, contre la pandémie, tous les pays ne disposent
social justice, immigration, gender equality, politics, foreign pas des mêmes armes : certains pays sont plus
affairs and religion.
démunis que d’autres. La précarité des systèmes
de santé, la fragilité des infrastructures, le niveau
de vie très faible et la vulnérabilité des popula-
tions sont autant de facteurs défavorables surtout
pour les Etats africains qui semblent presque
tous logés à la même enseigne. Et comme si cela
ne suffisait pas, les mesures barrières décrétées
par l’OMS comme le meilleur remède, à défaut
de vaccin, ont complètement bouleversé les habi-
tudes du vécu quotidien avec les contraintes du
confinement et de fermeture des frontières.
Le semblant du vivre en communauté, qui
donnait encore un peu d’humanité à ce monde
devenu individualiste égoïste et capitaliste, s’est
effrité, renforçant l’isolement, le repli sur soi….
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