Good News is rarely told in the media… I know you have heard this line before but…
Did you know that tonight 11.11.11 70,000 Christians gathered in the cave church of Mokattam to pray for peace? more images and short news report from Masr ElYoum here
one wouldn’t know it because the small bit of International news media focused on Egypt was too busy talking about hundreds marching thru Cairo to protest the 27 dead protestors from Mespero – which was a worthy story and than there is the not so worthy – the pyramids were closed because of fears of pagan rituals….
Bad news invades our lives each day – but when 70,000 people gather to say enough is enough with the situation in Egypt and pray for peace… no one in the media seems interested.
Blogger Tall Skinny Kiwi was there and wrote about it – and several YouTube videos were posted – however all in Arabic.
Peace Oriented Media or Peace Journalism as it is sometimes called is media that focuses on the positive stories. While of course there is debate over the objectivity of peace-media, there can be little harm in showing stories where a Palestinian and Israeli work together for peace or an Indian defends Kashmir human rights and desire for autonomy. These do happen, but we often do not hear of them. So in my small effort to counter the media monsters, I will share three positive stories from news this past week. While it was quite the hunting expedition, between a Turkish highjacked ferry, Mexico’s war on drugs, Europe’s austerity plans, Syria’s bloody protest… somehow I found them… please enjoy.
1. Kidnapped Baseball player is found alive in Venezuela. via AP News
2. Maasai Land Preservation Trust began to compensate herders for cattle lost to predators. Economic development and environmental preservation – a success story! via Al Jazeera English
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/earthrise/2011/10/20111018103923501556.html
3. A fathers love, human ingenuity and compassion can do miracles. Argentinian father creates a home physical therapy walker for his son and dozens of other that cannot walk. Via BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15695991
If you would like to read more about peace journalism or peace oriented media: here are some links
Peace Journalism Academic Research
Peace Journalism: Challenges and Opportunities
If you have some good news and would like to share it, please post it in the comment section