International Affairs Group in London

Report by Arielle Busetto

Members of the International Affairs discussion group travelled to Somerset House, London to explore Frontline: A Year of Journalism and Conflict.

The exhibition had footage, videos and material about the Arab Spring and the riots in London. It was a very interesting exhibition, not very big, but very insightful. It showed the experiences of the journalists that had risked and sometimes sacrificed their lives, in order to let the world know what was going on.

I thought it a very interesting way of looking at what happened, because a lot of the time we take for granted the experience of having live information and videos, but it is not as easy as it might seem, for on the other side of the camera there is a reporter that is 3 metres from a bomb, or dodging bullets as well as he or she can. But what hit me the hardest was the fact that despite all these videos, and the bombarding of information we receive, there is still so much we do not know; the figures are uncertain and the facts not always easy to prove due to the riskiness of the situation. This is a depressing thought considering we live in the century of streaming and live filming. It is because of this that many criticize western TV and newspapers, because they are writing and talking about something they do not fully know or understand. Filming is not always enough to comprehend the situation. A friend of mine said that he was skeptical of the Sky news channel because the figures they were quoting were all wrong. The truth is that I don't really know and it is difficult to prove from the many discrepancies. In my opinion who is really accurate? But while we try to understand, having access to live film and footage is the best solution, and this is why I found the exhibition so interesting.

January