Screening: Media Running Amok
The Freie Universität Berlin and Dart Centre Germany Europe have co-produced an educational film about the representation of so-called "highly expressive" and "targeted violence" in the media.
The school shooting on 11th of March 2009, at the Albertville-Realschule in Winnenden, left 16 people dead. In "Media Running Amok?" the tragic event is used as an example of how media coverage directly affects the bereaved. The 23 minute film “Media Running Amok?” was developed within the BMBF-Research association TARGET.
Press Conference l 16. June 2015 l 9:30am
Semianris Campushotel (Room Cambridge) Takustrasse 39, 14195 Berlin U-Bhf. Dahlem-Dorf (U3)
Following the conference, journalists may interview those involved with the film, including:
- Petra Tabeling (Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma)
- Thomas Görger (Filmmaker)
- Gisela Mayer (Aktionsbündnis Amoklauf Winnenden – Stiftung gegen Gewalt an Schulen)
- Oliver Schlappat (Deutscher Presserat)
- Prof. Dr. Frank Urbaniok (Psychologisch-Psychiatrischer Dienst Zürich)
- Prof. Dr. Herbert Scheithauer (Freie Universität Berlin, Projektleiter BMBF-Verbundprojekt TARGET)
- Moderator: Christa Beckmann (Leiterin Pressestelle der Freien Universität Berlin)
In the documentary, those personally affected like Gisela Mayer from the “Aktionsbündnis Winnenden, former students of the Albertville-Realschule, Frank Nipkau from the “Waiblinger Zeitungsverlag” and experts from the TARGET association explain how media coverage affected the bereaved, and how the media's representation of perpetrators can encourage acts of violence. To this day, journalism education programs rarely cover this topic.
Highly expressive violence might happen at any moment in time, as we saw just recently with the Germanwings crash in March 2015, which is why the documentary also shows how journalists can report on these events responsibly without harming those affected by tragedy, and without breaching ethical codes.
The film was has been supported by the Deutsche Presserat and the Aktionsbündnis Winnenden and produced and financed by the Ministry for Education and Research Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung finanziert (BMBF).
The Freie Universität is also offering free copies of the film to be used for journalism education and trainings.
You can find more Information at:
- Target-Forschungsverbund: Freie Universität Berlin, Fachbereich Erziehungswissenschaft und Psychologie, Arbeitsbereich Entwicklungswissenschaft und Angewandte Entwicklungspsychologie, Freie Universität Berlin, (030) 838 - 55593, [email protected], www.target-projekt.de
- Dart Center Europe/Deutschland: Petra Tabeling [email protected] (0221) 2780814 www.dartcenter.org/german