Changing the narrative for peace
The Northern Friends Peace Board will be addressing the narrative around peace and conflict
The need to ‘change the narrative for peace’ via the media will be addressed by Friends in Darlington in a conference organised by the Northern Friends Peace Board.
The conference considers three main issues: the need to change the narrative and thinking around what we mean by security, peace and conflict; the role and opportunities for independent voices and forms of media; and how campaigning and awareness-raising can most effectively be taken forward using existing, new and alternative media.
Workshops on these and related themes will give space for exploring practicalities and possibilities and to network with others.
Speakers will include Michael Gray, a journalist from CommonSpace (a digital news and views service in Scotland); Andrew Smith, media coordinator with Campaign Against Arms Trade; and David Gee, of the Ammerdown group on rethinking security.
The conference is free and takes place at the Quaker Meeting House on Skinnergate, in the centre of Darlington, on 24 September.
The organisers ask: ‘How can we, Quakers and others concerned for peace, support and promote a broader concept of security, one that takes a longer term view and recognises the factors that create the conditions of peace? What role does the media have to play?’
‘It is now widely recognised that underlying drivers or causes of insecurity range from economic inequality, to climate change and arms exports and other forms of militarisation. And yet there is a narrative and approach to international conflict that is too often framed as a violent situation that needs a violent response.’
