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Amplifying Peace Across Borders: Anna Rosario A. Elicaño (Age 24, The Philippines)

The document discusses how media and communication technologies can help build peace across borders by fostering understanding between different cultures. It provides examples of how the author was able to maintain international friendships through technologies like the internet. The author believes their generation has a greater capacity for peace due to exposure to diverse information online, which can help reduce ignorance and prejudice. The document also describes how a video conference between students in the Philippines helped dispel stereotypes and allowed them to see each other as individuals rather than labels. While media can also spread misinformation, the author argues that peacemakers should leverage technologies to amplify truthful connections and understanding between people from different places.

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Carmen Neagu
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55 views2 pages

Amplifying Peace Across Borders: Anna Rosario A. Elicaño (Age 24, The Philippines)

The document discusses how media and communication technologies can help build peace across borders by fostering understanding between different cultures. It provides examples of how the author was able to maintain international friendships through technologies like the internet. The author believes their generation has a greater capacity for peace due to exposure to diverse information online, which can help reduce ignorance and prejudice. The document also describes how a video conference between students in the Philippines helped dispel stereotypes and allowed them to see each other as individuals rather than labels. While media can also spread misinformation, the author argues that peacemakers should leverage technologies to amplify truthful connections and understanding between people from different places.

Uploaded by

Carmen Neagu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Theme: "The role of media and information and communication technologies in building a peaceful world"

Amplifying Peace Across Borders


Anna Rosario A. Elicao
(Age 24, The Philippines)
I met two of my closest friends at an international youth conference. Although the three of us went home to
places with different zip codes, we were still able to talk to each other every week afterwards. Thanks to the
Internet, a computer, and a headset, our long distance talks !ust like friendshiphave remained
completely free.
"ever before has media and communication technologies been as personal and encompassing as it is
today. #hen my parents were teenagers, what they knew about their Asian neighbors came from an
encyclopedia and black and white television. I imagine that the information they got was general, maybe
even stereotypical. $our decades later, despite the oceans between us, I have the benefit of knowing foreign
friends better. I can easily direct them to the website of my favorite local band. They can, !ust as easily, tell
me how their day at work went via instant messenger.
I celebrate the intimate connection brought about by media and communication technologies because it
allows me to understand people and their cultures more. This is the same reason why I think my generation
has a better capacity for bringing about a more peaceful world. %edia and communication technologies have
e&posed us to a wide and multi'cultural range of information. If hatred and pre!udice is bred by ignorance,
then it follows that information and understanding can bring about compassion and empathy.
I am inspired by the story of a youth organization in the (hilippines which initiated a video conference
between students from a school in %etro %anila and a school in %indanao. )eeing each other for the first
time on widescreens, a panel of student representatives from each school spoke to each other in real time.
They talked about their favorite classes and fun e&tra'curricular activities. They talked about the conflict in
%indanao and what they thought about peace. %ore importantly, they talked about their first impressions of
each other and how so much had changed after !ust *+ minutes of the video conference. And as they did
that, their teachers, parents, fellow schoolmates, and communities watched.
I am certain that not a few lives were changed that day. $or the students in %etro %anila, %uslim
%indanaoans in the south would no longer be compartmentalized into labels such as "separatists" or
"terrorists". As for the students in %indanao, %etro %anila is no longer embodied by soldiers who can turn
them and their families into refugees in an instant. #hat students from both sides saw were children not
unlike themselves. #e can only hope that what began with that *+'minute video conference can continue on
with a lifetime of understanding and truthful connection.
#hat happens when media and communication technologies are used with evil intent, The result is
disastrous. %edia is, after all, !ust a tool. In the wrong hands, misinformation and "hate speech" can be
easily spread. (eacemakers of today and of the future have to capitalize on these tools to amplify the truth
as loud as they can, across borders. Tony -lair, -ritain.s former prime minister, aptly describes the new
struggle: "/because mass media and communication convey powerful images in an instant across the
globe, it dictates that struggles are fought as much through propaganda, ideas and values as through
conventional means, military or diplomatic."
It is clear that, in this "information age", peacemakers are not those who remain silent in the sidelines for the
sake of harmony. -ono does it with his music and anonymous writers in Iran do it with their blogs. It is a
relief to know that, with media and communication technologies, there are several platforms for
peacemakers to speak out.
0ach generation has its peacemakers. #hat this generation will see are peacemakers who will not only sow
peace but amplify it across borders, empowered by media and communication technologies. )ome will
speak about specific advocacies. 1thers, by simply sharing aspects of themselves and their cultures, will
foster connection and understanding.
In the information age, the new batch of peacemakers will say that it chooses the Internet, blogs, and
television over guns, bombs, and tanks.

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