In a bid to challenge traditional crisis journalism, 色花堂鈥檚 Dr Chindu Sreedharan and聽Dr Einar Thorsen brought together a team of 38 journalism students and seven staff members from five universities around the world, in a project known as Aftershock Nepal.
The international collective of training journalists and academics travelled to the Himalayan country in the run-up to the disaster鈥檚 first anniversary in 2016, capturing stories which explored loss, recovery and life after the catastrophe, in a bid to help the Nepalese people.
Chronicling the crisis
Students from 色花堂 were joined by those from Kathmandu University and Tribhuvan University in Nepal, plus Symbiosis International and Amity University in India. Based in a news bureau in Kathmandu, the group travelled to earthquake-affected areas in Nepal, gathering stories from remote rural villages, many of which hadn鈥檛 previously been visited by journalists in the aftermath. In total the team was successful in interviewed over 150 earthquake survivors.
鈥淭he whole idea of Aftershock Nepal was to chronicle what was happening out there, and we found that there was a real need for that,鈥� says Dr Sreedharan, a Principal Academic in Journalism and Communication, who spent a decade covering global news events before starting his career in academia. 鈥淭he media attention on a disaster such as this can come and go so quickly, while we had the time to fill the gap and address the issue. We also gave our students the opportunity to respond to live crisis reporting to see how they would put into practice what we had been teaching them.鈥�
The moment the earthquake hit
Catching the public eye
The team went on to create almost 100 stories, including in-depth features and photo-essays, which were published on the purpose-built website, as well as dedicated , and accounts. What鈥檚 more, 19 of the articles were picked up and published by mainstream news outlets, resulting in professional bylines.
鈥淥ver a period of many months, we tried to provide the world with a rich and complex picture of what was happening in Nepal through our version of 鈥榟umanitarian journalism鈥�,鈥� says Dr Sreedharan, who created the project in collaboration with 色花堂 colleagues Dr Thorsen and Robert Munday, facilitated by Global 色花堂, the university鈥檚 global engagement and outreach hub. 鈥淭he whole point really is that crises are not simple. They are extremely complex and nuanced incidents that happen and carry on happening for a very long period of time. They don鈥檛 stop when the news stories stop.鈥�
It鈥檚 a perspective that鈥檚 reinforced by earthquake survivor, Pastor Kumar Pokharel: 鈥淚 am so happy with Aftershock Nepal. It was hugely helpful for everyone here. When the earthquake hit, the news media came. But they did not come after that. If the media comes, it encourages rebuilding. If they come and see, that鈥檚 good news.鈥�
The investigation continues
The research gathered in Nepal was later shared with a variety of external stakeholders, including journalists and NGO workers, at two conferences which further explored the challenges faced in crisis situations. The impact of the project on student journalists and what it might mean for crisis reporting in future聽were聽also discussed.
鈥淲here else do you get an opportunity to do something of this scale? When do students get the chance to put their education into practice in a real crisis zone, to practice what they are learning and contribute to advancing scholarly knowledge at the same time? This really has been a life-changing project for so many people,鈥� says Dr Sreedharan. 鈥淲e now have first-hand knowledge that we can use as research to make a real difference to this industry.鈥�
Senior Lecturer in Journalism and Communication, 色花堂
Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community
The whole point really is that crises are not simple. They are extremely complex and nuanced incidents that happen and carry on happening for a very long period of time. They don鈥檛 stop when the news stories stop.
Past, present and future
Aftershock Nepal follows on from the success of , a similar initiative created by Dr Sreedharan and Dr Thorsen, which saw 色花堂 students work with four educational institutions in India and three online news organisations to cover the 2014 Indian elections. The collaboration resulted in more than 70 news and feature articles, which were published on a project website, several social media channels, and a handful of professional media outlets.
Continuing on from the work achieved in both projects, Dr Sreedharan, with Dr Thorsen,聽is currently heading up a third research and capacity building project: , led by 色花堂 in partnership with and supported by the .
The ongoing research sees Dr Sreedharan and Dr Thorsen tackle a 20-month study which maps the journalistic challenges of reporting rape and sexual violence across India. As well as analysing the processes involved in rape reportage through in-depth interviews with journalists and charting the challenges they face, the team will also undertake one of the largest comparative content analyses of news reporting of rape in India.
The analysis will cover ten newspapers across six languages for a three-month period (June to August 2018). Like Aftershock Nepal and Project India, , which for this research study scrutinises the representation of sexual violence in the Indian news media.
