The Conflict Medium: Reporting/Constructing Conflict Around The World

By Tara Graham

Dec 23

The Conflict Medium is a website produced by U.C. Berkeley undergraduate student Rashad Sisemore in my online research and web production course during the 2012 fall semester.

Today, when you turn on the television or open up a newspaper, you will most likely come across a news story relating to violence or conflict. In this era of globalization, we are increasingly interested with populations and issues outside our borders. These reports, provided by journalists and news organizations, give us insight into spaces we cannot access or do not dare. As much as we consume stories of conflict spread across pages in our morning papers, how often do we think about how such news is constructed? How is it disseminated to us? Who are the key actors?

The Conflict Medium is a research blog dedicated to exploring how situations of conflict are covered by the mainstream news. This blog will introduce the actors, dive into the professional world of journalists, give access to interviews with journalists who cover conflict, introduce journalism theories that are shaping the industry today, and look at how new technology is influencing the way conflict is covered.

Student Work

The Narrative #Selfie

Lose the shirt off my back? Nah.

When life got dicey, I opened my closet doors, bypassed the blouses, and earned a (modest) payday by selling used hangers in 25-pack bundles.

More recently, I put my hustle into play at 500 Startups, the world’s most active venture capital fund and startup accelerator, where I led content, branding, marketing, operations, and corporate partnerships for business development and global programs.

Before transitioning into tech, I worked in higher education, teaching online research and media production classes across a variety of disciplines at the University of California, Berkeley. During that time, I also worked as the Director and Executive Producer of Digital Media Projects at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, where I co-founded and led The #GlobalPOV Project, a mixed-media approach to thinking about poverty, inequality, and undertaking poverty action.

In addition, I was the Director of Media at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, where I had the opportunity to interview Bashar al-Assad in his presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, in late December of 2010. I asked Assad if he considered himself a dictator. He dodged the inquiry, but his actions in the immediate weeks, months, and years to follow answered the question . . . and then some. Sadly.

Before that, I was a practicing journalist and graduate fellow at the University of Southern California. During that time, I worked as a web reporter and photographer for KCET’s “SoCal Connected,” as an online editor for the London-based New Statesman magazine, and as the co-editor-in-chief of USC Annenberg’s award-winning digital news website. I got my start in journalism as a full-time associate editor (and employee #20!) at P✪PSUGAR, a Sequoia-backed content and commerce startup turned global media empire.

My freelance reporting has been featured in NBC, CBS, and ABC news broadcasts and in online publications, including The Huffington Post. I have also done manuscript editing for various authors with recognized commercial and university presses.