JRN 490 Peace Journalism
Lesson 6: Media in Conflict
(Peace Journalism in the Philippines)
By Metin Ersoy
Lesson 6: Media in Conflict
(Peace Journalism in the Philippines)

Peace Journalism is based on the proposition that the
choices journalists make while covering conflicts tend
inescapably either to expand or contract the space
available for society at large to imagine and work towards
peaceful outcomes to conflicts.

Peace Journalism can help society at large think and speak
about non-violence and creativity when dealing with
conflicts.
Lesson 6: Media in Conflict
(Peace Journalism in the Philippines)

How conflict influences the media?



Media is a part of society.
Journalist is also human being, thus, conflict influences them in a
way that, physical, psychological, emotional and mental.
How media can influence conflict?

Positive and negative way.
Lesson 6: Media in Conflict
(Peace Journalism in the Philippines)
FROM OLD
TO NEW
ROLE
•Watchdog
•Enabler
•Commentator
•Communicator
•Independent of issues
covered
•Independent yet
interdependent
•Spectator/observer
•“in the boat”
Lesson 6: Media in Conflict
(Peace Journalism in the Philippines)
STYLE/STORIES
•Debate
•Dialogue
•Difference
•Common ground and
difference
•Polemic
•Discussion
Lesson 6: Media in Conflict
(Peace Journalism in the Philippines)
APPROACH TO JOURNALISM
•Seeks simplicity
•Explores complexity
•Reactive to violent events
•Strategy to
understand/uncover the conflict
•Event-based reporting
•Process-based reporting
•“I am objective”
•“I am fair”
•Balance = cover both sides
equally (quantity)
•Balance = represent both sides
stories and perceptions
(quality)
Lesson 6: Media in Conflict
(Peace Journalism in the Philippines)
APPROACH TO AUDIENCES
•Bodily damage/gore increases
circulation
•Public participation in problem
solving builds
audiences/readership
•Newsroom sets agenda
•Public has role in setting a
agenda
•Leaders/experts know best
•Ordinary people need to be
consulted
•Right to know
•Right to participate in
democratic processes
•“This is the way journalism is
done”
•Exploratory and flexible; rooted
in values
Lesson 6: Media in Conflict
(Peace Journalism in the Philippines)

How different is to cover a war being a foreigner or being
a local (same for NGOs, governments, etc)?


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Objectivity
Balance
Accuracy
Quality
Lesson 6: Media in Conflict
(Peace Journalism in the Philippines)


The classical journalistic idea that ‘peace is no news’.
Why violence and conflict are news, and peace is not?
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
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“If it bleeds, it leads”
“Healthy, transparent, balanced”
Current journalism or mainstream news values are
conflict oriented and it has become a paradox within
UNESCO universal journalism principles. The second
principle says that, “journalist is opposite to war”, but in
the conventional journalism war is the good news,
because newspaper will increase the circulation.
Lesson 6: Media in Conflict
(Peace Journalism in the Philippines)

Peace journalism seems directly opposite to conventional
journalism, however we should not forget that peace
journalism is not an invention. Conventional journalism
goes far from society problems, and becomes the power
of government.

Wolfsfeld (2004) argues that, “…scholars simply find
conflict more exciting than peace (p. 9).” The nature
of human being has included reflex to extraordinary
things, the basic idea behind this reaction is
protection. This is why, human being interesting in
conflict news rather than peace news. Media,
however, uses this human interest in a negative way.
Lesson 6: Media in Conflict
(Peace Journalism in the Philippines)

The traditional claim by media is “public demand
that kind of news which are including violence and
conflict”, even thought there is that kind of demand
from public, Kempf’s (2005) studies show how
escalate oriented reporting affect the conflict
between the conflicting sides.
Lesson 6: Media in Conflict
(Peace Journalism in the Philippines)

Is it possible to be fair and independent covering your
‘own’ conflict?


Yes it is. But how?
Peace Journalism assumption can help us to be fair and
independent covering our ‘own’ conflict.


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Empathy
Stephen W. Littlejohn and Kathy Domenici (2001, pp.
80-81) in their book “Engaging Communication in
Conflict: Systemic Practice” suggest six reframe
statement which I think they are helpful for media in
conflict.
Lesson 6: Media in Conflict
(Peace Journalism in the Philippines)

We can reframe from negative to positive: Cypriot
media should reframe of their news language from
negative to positive. They should stop negative
presenting of the “other side”.

We can reframe from past to future: Cypriot media
should stop blaming each other about what
happened in the past and who was the “guilty”.
Lesson 6: Media in Conflict
(Peace Journalism in the Philippines)

We can reframe from hostile to neutral or positive:
Cypriot media should stop seeing each other as
“enemy” or “hostile”. They should stop
antagonistic discourse in their news article.

We can reframe from individual interests to
community interests: Cypriot media should reframe
the issues in a way mutual understanding and both
community interest.
Lesson 6: Media in Conflict
(Peace Journalism in the Philippines)

We can reframe from compliant to vision: Cypriot
media should stop being compliant because of the
past events. They should look at the future, and
create a positive vision.

We can reframe from criticism to request: Cypriot
media should spend time to criticize each other.
They should spend more time to talk on what
kind of requests they have.
Lesson 6: Media in Conflict
(Peace Journalism in the Philippines)


Shall media coverage and journalists inform or
promote peace?
The normative premise (Shinar, 2004, p. 2) of
peace journalism is that if media play a negative
role in terms of increasing the tensions between
and among the sides of the conflict, they can also
play a positive role by promoting peace.
Lesson 6: Media in Conflict
(Peace Journalism in the Philippines)

The question is, should the media promote peace?
If yes, how can we make them do that? Shinar
argues that, “the media should be involved in the
promotion of peace, regardless of: a) Conservative
objections to an alleged loss of objectivity linked
with the promotion of peace; b) Theoretical and
practical questions about what version of peace
should be promoted; and c) Economic and
political institutional constraints built into the
media structure” (p. 2).