Mediation and the Media

Yesterday I listened to a radio programme during which a mediator (a colleague of mine, actually) was called upon to persuade a woman who was in dispute with her neighbour, to mediate. 

The mediator did a sterling job, but it raised for me practical and ethical problems which perhaps in part explain why so few people understand what mediation is all about. 

The programme was set up for the presenter to ask the distressed woman to recount the difficulties she’d had with her neighbour.  Obviously, being a journalist, his instinct was to delve into the salacious and extract facts that would make good listening.  In all fairness, he did a good job, even from a mediator’s point of view.  He didn’t get caught up on irrelevances, he didn’t ask random, or intrustive questions (or not too many of them), most of his questions were open and his tone was sympathetic if not empathetic. 

However, when it came to the mediator’s turn to have, as it were, the first party meeting, in which normally he’d he helping the woman explore the issues and investigate the needs and interests that weren’t being met by her neighbour’s actions, he was stymied.  There were several reasons – there wasn’t time to establish rapport; there wasn’t time or space to discuss the problem at the pace required; and on top of that he was doing it for an audience.  And this was the real problem, and the reason why real time mediations on TV, radio or any other medium will never show mediation at its best.  There was no confidentiality and therefore the entire process was unsafe.

Not surprisingly, the woman seemed fairly skeptical about the merits of mediation by the end, though as I say, the mediator spoke well for the cause, and I can’t help thinking that this type of demonstration can do more harm than good.  Mock-up mediations are an excellent idea for demonstrating this wonderful and most effective form of conflict resolution.  But let them always be mock ups – role plays by people acting the part.  Otherwise the lack of confidentiality will either compromise the party or compromise the demonstration of the process.  Mediators asked by broadcasters to do this sort of thing should refuse on ethical grounds.