The Routledge Companion to Media and Human Rights

Howard Tumber, Silvio Waisbord, Howard Tumber, Silvio Waisbord

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780367581220
• eBook ISBN: 9781317215127
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Media Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

The Routledge Companion to Media and Human Rights offers a comprehensive and contemporary survey of the key themes, approaches and debates in the field of media and human rights.

The Companion is the first collection to bring together two distinct ways of thinking about human rights and media, including scholarship that examines media as a human right alongside that which looks at media coverage of human rights issues. This international collection of 49 newly written pieces thus provides a unique overview of current research in the field, while also providing historical context to help students and scholars appreciate how such developments depart from past practices.

The volume examines the universal principals of freedom of expression, legal instruments, the right to know, media as a human right, and the role of media organisations and journalistic work. It is organised thematically in five parts:

• Communication, Expression and Human Rights

• Media Performance and Human Rights: Political Processes

• Media Performance and Human Rights: News and Journalism

• Digital Activism, Witnessing and Human Rights

• Media Representation of Human Rights: Cultural, Social and Political.

Individual essays cover an array of topics, including mass-surveillance, LGBT advocacy, press law, freedom of information and children's rights in the digital age. With contributions from both leading scholars and emerging scholars, the Companion offers an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach to media and human rights allowing for international comparisons and varying perspectives.

The Routledge Companion to Media and Human Rights provides a comprehensive introduction to the current field useful for both students and researchers, and defines the agenda for future research.

1

MEDIA AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Mapping the field

Howard Tumber and Silvio Waisbord

A rich academic literature has examined the relationship between the media and human rights. A simple online search for ‘media’ and ‘human rights’ yields a long list of citations about a diversity of topics – from the globalisation of the right of expression to news coverage about the situation of particular rights, from the communication rights of specific groups to citizens’ uses of digital platforms to demand government protection, from visual depictions of suffering and barbarism in the news to the application of technologies in order to monitor and document abuses, or from the vulnerability of reporters’ rights to the utilisation of news photos in recovery from traumatic experiences in war and conflict.

This vast scope of themes and questions can be attributed to several factors. First, both concepts – ‘the media’ and ‘human rights’ – have multiple semantic dimensions. ‘The media’ refers to the institutions, industries and technologies for the large-scale production of content. The digital revolution has expanded traditional notions of ‘the media’ originally coined at the heyday of print and broadcast media in the first half of the twentieth century. Today, ‘the media’ include digital platforms and companies whose structures, characteristics, technological affordances and performance are considerably different from the modern ‘mass’ media. Consequently, media analysis of human rights has included a broad set of issues, forms, content, technologies and industries.

‘Human rights’ is a multifaceted concept, too (Minogue 1979). It refers to universal rights, rights of specific populations, historical evolution and philosophical debates, legal agreements and processes, governments and mobilised citizens. Rights belong to individuals and communities. They set the obligations of governments to protect citizens and enforce laws. Rights provide a language to define human dignity and personhood, frame political and social demands and examine issues. Rights crystallise a wide range of shared international norms. It is not exaggerated to say that virtually any topic can be understood as a question of human rights – the right to housing and education, land ownership, equality, privacy, safety, food, safe water and sanitation, association, decent wages and impartial justice.

Second, growing interest in media and rights reflects the global ascendancy of human rights since the end of the Second World War. Human rights as a subject has a long and convoluted intellectual and political history (Clapham 2015; Hunt 2007) punctuated by the evolution of rights-claiming movements and legal achievements. It gained unprecedented international relevance as both a political framework and normative horizon with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations. Subsequently, surging grassroots activism, particularly in the context of authoritarianism and consequent large-scale violations of rights in different regions of the world, and the signing of numerous treaties and international declarations further elevated the prominence of human rights.

During the past decades, remarkable gains have been made in rights, notwithstanding slow, gradual and imperfect advances (Donnelly 2003). The proliferation of legal frameworks that define a range of universal rights as well as rights for specific populations (such as children, ethnic and linguistic minorities, immigrants, women and people with disabilities) has no precedent in human history (Elliot 2011). Simultaneously, the number of national and international organizations in charge of institutionalising norms and monitoring the state of human rights has multiplied. The vibrant citizen mobilisation at local, national and global levels to demand the adoption and enforcement of rights is remarkable, too. These processes have been responsible for the global spread of rights-based language and norms that infuse international legislation and political discourse.

Still, there is a yawning gap between legal, policy-based and institutional progress and the many ‘pathologies of human rights’ (Beitz 2011) in contemporary societies. The transition ‘from commitment to compliance’ (Risse, Ropp, and Sikkink 2013) has suffered from false starts, contradictions and plain failures. If human rights are premised on the ‘sacredness of the person’ ( Joas 2013), the persistence of dire conditions is a painful reminder of the unfulfilled promises of the project of universal human rights. The regular violations of political and civil rights coupled with the persistence of crushing poverty contradict the foundational idea of human rights that all humans should ‘live in dignity’ (Benhabib 2011). The ambitious ideals that laid down the legal foundations of human rights remain relevant despite the troubling record of governments and international bodies in enforcing protections and sanctions.

Human rights are unevenly observed across countries and specific areas. Formal doctrines and regulations are not consistently translated into effective practices. Myriad international conventions, regular attention and mobilization have not prevented or stopped grave abuses or brought justice. Governments have failed to show consistent and unfailing commitment to enforcing the very same conventions they signed. The international community has often held ambiguous positions and weak determination in relation to the scrutiny of conditions and ensuring rights.

A sophisticated legal architecture, soaring rhetoric, spirited debates and buoyant hopes contrast with dire conditions around the globe. Disappointment with the promise of human rights is warranted given persistent violations of rights in recent years, including torture, slavery and the death penalty; genocide and ethnic cleansing; the discrimination of individuals and groups based on religion, race, gender, sex and other factors; the imposition of restriction on mobility and association; environmental degradation; child labour; and entrenched poverty and social inequality. Addressing unmet demands, preventing violations and bringing justice are part of the full and complex international agenda of human rights.

Continued failure to address problems and guarantee rights for the vast majority of the world’s population might prove sceptics right. Critics point at the chasm between hope and reality as evidence that lofty proclamations become hollow rhetoric, legal frameworks are toothless tools, governments are hypocritical and international bodies tasked with monitoring enforcement and prosecuting violators are systematically ineffective (Hopgood 2013). ¹

Third, the ‘mediatisation’ of global societies also explains significant scholarly interest in media and human rights. Mediatization refers to a ‘double-sided process’ in which the media have become one ‘independent institution with a logic of its own that other social institutions have to accommodate to’ as well as an integrated part of other institutions like politics, work, family and religion as more and more of these institutional activities are performed through both interactive and mass media (Hjarvard 2008).

Just as in other realms of politics and society, key aspects of contemporary human rights are intertwined with the role of the media. It is not an exaggeration to say that the way societies come to understand and experience the situation of ‘human rights’ is largely shaped by mediated communication. Considering that human rights are socially constructed (Nash 2015), communication and persuasion are central processes by which societies come to define, understand and implement rights-based policies. They underpin the processes by which activists petition authorities to act, and to demand laws, active monitoring, and enforcement; by which governments aim to convince various publics about policies and decisions; and the way publics react to denunciations of human rights violations, develop empathy with victims and the manner in which affected communities tell stories and seek justice,

The media play critical roles in large-scale communication and persuasion (Bob 2005; Brysk 2013). Without addressing the media can we think about the globalization of human rights and the rise of transnational networks of activists in recent decades? Can we explain the dynamics of campaigns intended to raise public awareness, advocate for legal reforms and ‘name and shame’ the perpetrators of atrocities? Or can we understand the public outrage and support for humanitarian interventions?

The media constitute a central source of information about global conditions. It is hard to imagine how large publics would come to know about unspeakable tragedies and the impact of violations on people’s lives without the presence of the media. The media are the purveyors of information via in-depth investigations, harrowing testimonies, gruesome pictures and images of empowerment and struggle. The media are witnesses to barbarism and acts of justice. The media present daily perpetrators of hate, bigotry and other forms of anti-rights discourse as well as committed actors that denounce abuses and demand justice. The media are arenas where political and social actors battle over the definition of public perception and actions about human rights. The media convey a sense of actions being taken to address and prevent abuses. The media magnify the presence of certain human rights problems whilst minimising the relevance of others.

Media coverage may prompt officials to conduct hearings, investigate conditions, pass legislation, set up programs, earmark funding and take policy-related actions – from sanctions against governments to the deployment of troops. Governments try to influence news coverage through news management. Monitoring bodies closely follow media reports to assess conditions, produce information and recommend actions. Activists utilise media technologies and platforms to call attention to conditions, document situations and make demands. News reports about rights affect public perception about situations, influence opinion and stimulate people into action. Human rights organizations design news-making tactics to bring visibility to specific conditions. Humanitarian actions are often sparked by intense, emotional media coverage. Single media images become symbolic of humanitarian tragedies, global compassion or negligence, power and struggle.

Needless to say, the mediated reality of ‘human rights’ conditions does not perfectly mirror actual conditions. Several factors affect the selection process through which the media approach human rights. Media coverage does not have a similar, predictable influence on the overall enterprise of human rights. There are many dimensions to the way the media have affected the way societies comprehend, develop attitudes and positions towards, and support actions to tackle human rights.

The media are also connected to another key aspect of communication and persuasion about human rights: the mobilization of rights-based discourse to define issues and problems and justify actions. By understanding any given question as a matter of rights, governments and activists deliberately set out to identify it as a basic matter of human dignity. ‘Human rights’ is quite a malleable trope used to frame quite different political causes and actions. It provides a vocabulary to understand conditions based on the premise that all citizens have equal rights that need to be respected and observed.

Human rights has become a master interpretive framework to understand human life and makes calls to pay attention and take action. The discursive power of ‘human rights’ represents the broadening of human rights as a fundamental, all-encompassing perspective that is not limited exclusively to particular issues. The expansion of the agenda of human rights can be attributed to the flexibility and the moral power of the narrative of human rights (Freeman 2011).

New challenges, such as humanitarian crises driven by war, cross-border migration, climate change and natural disasters, have been redefined as assaults on basic rights. Public health activists define access to reproductive services or HIV/AIDS care and treatment as a question of rights. Children’s advocates defend educational and family policies as the fulfilment of basic children’s rights. Refugee and immigrant groups similarly invoke human rights to appeal to human solidarity and to pressure policymakers to take actions. Governments utilize rights-based discourse to legitimise decisions, too. With the hope of persuading legislators and the public, they tap into rights language to justify a range of actions: from supporting parliamentary bills to authorising military actions ‘to protect and safeguard the human rights’ of specific populations.

The growing complexity of the right to expression and communication also explains interest in media and human rights. The media are the subjects of the freedom of expression: a fundamental, emblematic democratic right. Historically, this has never been a simple, straightforward issue with clear definitions and legal and practical implications. Rather, it has been a matter of constant debate and controversy.

Recent developments in public communication have added additional dimensions to the global spread of democracy, old and new threats, the recognition of particular speech rights for certain populations, and the compatibility with other human rights in a multicultural, globally connected world. The digitalisation of public life has introduced a new plethora of questions related to the right of free expression on the Internet. Public expression in digital spaces takes place on the same platforms used for multiple purposes: sociability, commerce, political participation, entertainment and other activities. It is embedded in networks created and controlled by private intermediaries whose operations and decisions affecting speech are opaque and primarily driven by commercial objectives. The same digital platforms that provide opportunities for expression are used for marketing as well as commercial and political surveillance.

In summary, the multiple semantic dimensions of ‘media’ and ‘human rights’, the preeminent presence of human rights in the global scene, the ‘mediatization’ of global societies and the increased complexity of the right of expression explain the intensity of interest in media and human rights. Underlying this interest lies the belief in the significance and urgency of human rights in the contemporary world and the role of scholarly work in helping to understand and act upon both the challenges and solutions. The result of this combination of factors is a copious, thematically diverse and scattered body of research.

Why this companion

In our own work, we have long been interested in various aspects of the relationship between the media and human rights: the intersection between journalism, conflict, war; the press and freedom of expression; debates over media policies; and the definition of expression and communication rights in contemporary democracies. We noticed not only that communication and media research on human rights covered a wide range of issues, but also that there was a lack of any attempt to make sense of the dispersed lines of research and arguments.

Our interest in this Companion is to delineate key themes, questions and debates in the field of media and human rights, with the hope that it provides analytical connecting threads and encourages further research. Our belief is that media studies has continued to make important contributions to the study of human rights. Together with recent attention from public policy, sociology, political science and international relations, the growth of media research reflects ongoing movements to broaden academic perspectives in the analysis of human rights beyond legal studies. By presenting a comprehensive survey of topics and sketching out clusters of research interests, we argue that media studies offers unique and multiple perspectives on central aspects of contemporary human rights.

We decided to cast a wide analytical net to identify fundamental themes, arguments and debates. With this goal in mind, we asked scholars to provide critical and thorough assessments of particular subjects linking media and human rights – analytical foci, positions and research trends. We do not pretend to cover every possible topic that falls und...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• copyright
• Title
• contents
• List of figure
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Preface
• 1 Media and human rights: Mapping the field
• PART I: Communication, expression and human rights
• PART II: Media performance and human rights
• PART III: Media performance and human rights
• PART IV: Digital activism, witnessing and human rights
• Part V: Media representation of human rights: Cultural, social and political
• Index