In The News

BBC: Why Humans Need Stories

David Robson May 28, 2018
Stories provide lessons for people to understand one another and their world. Some stories are region-specific, and the most popular tales can fascinate audiences around the world over the course of centuries – whether the cave paintings in France from 30,000 years ago or the Epic of Gilgamesh engraved on tablets 4,000 years ago in Babylonia. Scholars offer theories on why some themes – escapism...

AFP: Chemical Inspectors Enter Syria’s Douma

April 17, 2018
A team of investigators with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons landed in Syria to examine the reported April 7 gas attack near Damascus, but delays block them from entering the neighborhood. The United States, France and Britain had already launched missile strikes on military sites. French President Emmanuel Macron admitted that missile strikes will do little in protecting...

Wall Street Journal: Myanmar Court Holds Journalists Investigating Rohingya

Jon Emont April 11, 2018
Government leaders who engage in shameful behavior strive to limit press freedoms. A Myanmar court is holding two Reuter journalists for reporting on the Rohingya crisis. The minority Muslim group has no citizen rights in the Buddhist nation and the military burned villages and forced as many as 700,000 people to relocate to Bangladesh. “Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been investigating alleged...

Financial Times: Voice of China for the Globe

Emily Feng March 22, 2018
China is consolidating its state-run media including television broadcaster CCTV, China Radio International and China National Radio. The media giant will be known as Voice of China and will continue to target a global audience, presenting “Communist party theories, guidelines and policies” and a Chinese model of governance as an alternative to Western democracy and media reports. “China’s state...

Mail & Guardian: Ethiopia’s Crisis

Simon Allison March 8, 2018
Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous country after Nigeria and could soon overtake Kenya as East Africa’s largest economy. But the country is in political crisis with protests, violence by security forces, and the media under censorship. “The international NGOs and think-tanks that operate in Ethiopia are complicit in maintaining the veil of silence. Many agree to refrain from any criticism...

The Atlantic: “CNN Effect” Dies in Syria

Uri Friedman March 1, 2018
Broadcasts of atrocities can prompt government action. While research has not confirmed a positive link, analysts suggest that 1990s reporting from Iraq, Somalia and Bosnia contributed to public expectations for US intervention. Despite an abundance of real-time reporting, the CNN effect may be a mirage for Syria: “the Syrian government’s relentless bombardment of the besieged rebel enclave of...

Straits Times: Mixed Reactions Over Xi’s Expanded Power

Lim Yan Liang February 26, 2018
China’s Parliament plans to remove the term limits for China’s presidency. The rationale is to support reforms and a 30-year modernization plan. State-run media expressed approval for the plan to allow Xi Jinping to serve beyond 10 years while the response was mixed between criticism and support for stability on social media, reports Lim Yan Liang for the Straits Times. China's censors...