Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Ardent Flame: Witness To Distant Suffering, Human Rights And Unworthy Victims In The Coverage By The New York Times And Two Journals Of The Religious Left Of The 1980s Civil Wars In El Salvador And Nicaragua, Charles A. Flowerday

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Theses

Scholars have investigated witness to distant suffering (WTDS) almost entirely in visual media. This study examines it in print. This form of reporting will be examined in two publications of the religious left as contrasted with the New York Times. The thesis is that, more than any technology, WTDS consists of the journalist’s moral commitment and narrative skills and the audience’s analytical resources and trust. In the religious journals, liberation theology provides the moral commitment, the writers and editors the narrative skills and trust and the special vision of the newly empowered poor the analytical foundation. In bearing witness to …