Lisa Monette, who works in Communications for the Canadian Government, facilitated two days at the start of this week around the role of media in war and peacebuilding. She focused on interview techniques, peace/conflict sensitive journalism and “anti rumour” campaigns. To put this type of journalism into context we were shown quite a few examples form the great work of “Search for Common Ground” such as their radio and television shows in various conflict zones around the world.
I also spent Wednesday evening running a workshop for my classmates on the role of social media in our own professional capacities through utilizing LinkedIn, Twitter, Hootsuite etc. to both gather and disseminate information.
“Unwar the Web“: An example of a new social media campaign
The other theory that stuck out to me this week was Johan Galtung’s (1992) twelve points that concerns the values of what he calls war journalism. I thought it would be worth mentioning them here as they offer some food for thought in regards to how we present information in this field:
- A focus on violence as its own cause-thus decontexualizing violence, not looking at the reasons,
- Dualism, always reduces to two parts, and hereof winners-losers which makes non-violent outcome ignored
- Manicheanism; the two parts consists of the contradictions good-evil,
- Armageddon, violence is inevitable,
- Focus on individual, avoiding structural causes,
- Making confusion by only a focus on battlefield and visible effects, not on underlying forces
- Excluding and omitting the bereaved, thus never explaining why there are actions of revenge/violence spirals
- Failure to explore the causes of escalation and the impact of media coverage itself,
- Failure to explore the goals of outside interventionists,
- Failure to explore peace proposals, and offer images of peaceful outcomes
- Confusing cease-fires and negotiations with actual peace, peace is defined as victory plus ceasefire
- Omitting reconciliation; and conflicts tend to re-emerge if wounds are not healed
You can find a more information around these points @ Journalism and power: The role of media in building human rights and a culture of peace
Practical Peace 