How news media shortchanges nonviolent resistance

Making Peace Visible

The right to peaceful protest is considered fundamental in democracies around the world. Nonviolent protest movements, like the Gandhian movement for independence in India or The Civil Rights Movement in the United States are celebrated in history books. Yet if you go looking for coverage of nonviolent protest in the news media, most of the time you’ll come up short.

Guest Maria Stephan is a political scientist who studies nonviolent protest movements.

Stephan has worked as a Foreign Affairs Officer for the State Department under President Barack Obama, and directed the Program on Nonviolent Action at the U.S. Institute of Peace. With Julia Roig, she co-founded the Horizons Project, which is focused on community organizing as a means of combating polarization and oppression in the United States. Stephan is the co-author with Erica Chenoweth of the book Why Civil Resistance Works, along with other books on the topic.

In this interview, Maria widens the lens on nonviolent resistance, and offers tips for how journalists could apply that lens to tell more complete and captivating stories.

Follow Maria Stephan on Twitter @MariaJStephan.

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ABOUT THE SHOW

Making Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Our mission is to bring journalists and peacebuilders together to re-imagine the way the news media covers peace and conflict, and to facilitate expanded coverage of global peace and reconciliation efforts. Join the conversation on Twitter: @warstoriespeace. Write to us at [e-mail].

Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon, and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Music in this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions, Podington Bear, and Xylo-Ziko.

ABOUT THE SHOW

The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Steven Youngblood is Director of Education for Making Peace Visible. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org

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