On November 18, Alfa Banking Group named professor, NES Professor Maria Petrova spoke at the United Nations Webcast "Radio and Reconstruction". The discussion examined how radio has been used to fuel genocide, and how the media was used in the aftermath of atrocity crimes, to assist with the reconstitution and tracing of families.
Maria Petrova's talk featured her research "Radio and the Rise of the Nazis in Prewar Germany" co-authored by Maja Adena, Ruben Enikolopov, Veronica Santarosa, and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya. The research finds out how do the media affect public support for democratic institutions in a fragile democracy and what role do they play in a dictatorial regime studied in the context of Germany of the 1920s and 1930s.
Among other panelists there were Dr. Christian Höschler, Deputy Head of Research and Education at the Arolsen Archives; Dr. Sara E. Brown, Executive Director of the Center for Holocaust, Human Rights & Genocide Education; Mr. Ally Yusuf Mugenzi, Editor, BBC Great Lakes Service, and former presenter of BBC Gahuzamiryango. The event was moderated by Mr. Ben Dotsei Malor, Chief Editor of Dailies, United Nations News and Media Division.
"Radio and Reconstruction" is the third episode of the live online discussion series organized by the UN Department of Global Communications together with the Outreach Programmes on the transatlantic slave trade, the Holocaust and the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
The video is available here