Peace Journalism: The State of the Art (original) (raw)
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2017
Situating peace journalism in the context of social-psychological and media-sociological theories, this paper argues that peace journalism can best be furthered by a gradual process of development that adapts it to the level of conflict escalation, mainstream media discourse and over-all societal climate. Only if it takes these factors into consideration can peace journalism be effective and reach at least moderate segments of society. Hardliners who are already committed to a war frame can seldom be converted, but rather will defend their beliefs using all available means, including attempts to discredit peace journalism itself. In order to maintain their credibility, peace journalists must prove their integrity and avoid crossing the line separating journalism from activism. 1. Defining peace journalism In modern diplomacy, media serve as: (1) information sources, (2) communication channels for decision-makers, and (3) means to secure public support (Cohen 1986). They offer citize...
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2003
This epilogue aims at integrating the series of articles offered by the Toda Peace Journalism group in cco (4/2 2005; 5/2 2006; 6/1, 2007) into a framework designed to orient the reader, without repeating the arguments presented in the articles; to encourage instructors and students to use these materials; and to stimulate thinking on "where do we go next". Coherence is sought through looking at critical analyses of the conventional coverage of war and peace and at the promise and performance of Peace Journalism, analyzing epistemological and professional constraints, presenting ways to improve Peace Journalism concepts and practices, and offering an agenda and some development strategies. The initial premise that Peace Journalism (PJ) is a mode of responsible and conscientious media representation of conflict, alternative to conventional coverage, develops into a summary of critical evaluations of such coverage, and of the efforts to conceptualize PJ. A discussion of the ...
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Peace journalism, as the name suggests, is a form of journalism committed to exploring root causes of conflict in order to “create opportunities for society at large to consider and value non-violent responses to conflict” (Lynch and McGoldrick, 2005: 6). Its history can be tracked back to 1965, when Johan Galtung and Mari Ruge analysed what makes foreign news newsworthy (Galtung and Ruge, 1965). Jake Lynch and Johan Galtung (Lynch and Galtung, 2010) further developed the notion of peace journalism and argued that the media (war reporting, in particular) predominantly exhibit biases towards violence and rest on the conceptual belief that ‘conflict’ equals ‘war’. Within the field of peace journalism (Lynch and Galtung, 2010; Lynch and McGoldrick, 2005), this view was considered problematic because it prevents conflict to be considered as an opportunity for the search of a new harmony between the parties involved, via a process that does not have to necessarily develop into a war. In ...
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Conflict & Communication Online, 2019
The aim of this essay is to clarify the basic concepts and critically contrast the quite different conceptions of peace journalism on the side of Kempf (1996) and Galtung (1998). As will be shown, the models of Galtung and Kempf are not only based on different concepts of peace, but rather the authors also differ in their understanding of violence and non-violence, as well as in the theoretical foundations of their models of peace journalism. Based on a discussion of Lynch & McGoldrick's (2005) reception of peace journalism, Loyn's (2008) and Hanitzsch's (2004, 2008) criticism is examined, and the compatibility of Kempf's central concept of misperceptions with the social construction of reality is examined and clarified. The conclusion of the essay is a summary of the main results of previous and the most urgent tasks of future basic research on peace journalism.
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Pacific Journalism Review, 2011
Power, politics and profit have been the key factors in determining the media's traditional approach towards conflict. But in recent decades, the debate on'peace journalism'as an approach to conflict has gained momentum and several scholars (Galtung, 1973; Lynch, ...
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Global Media and Communication, 2015
The peace journalism (PJ) field now has an appreciable amount of published material to show for its first decade of serious operation, in research, teaching and training alike. It amounts to a serious project to reform professional education programmes in journalism. But so far, the proposed remedies are more individual projects than coordinated and organized reforms; they are scattered geographically and do not have a global scope. This article discusses the need for a joint approach together with universities, colleges, training institutes and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and inter-governmental organizations, if PJ is to contribute to establishing journalism as an important factor in international norm-setting and to raise the profession’s ethical standards with regard to violent conflicts. To enable this, further conceptual development is also necessary. A combination of Johan Galtung’s PJ approach, with insights from critical discourse analysis (CDA), offe...
Peace journalism: Theoretical and methodological developments
Global Media and Communication, 2015
Peace journalism (PJ) has come a long way in the decade or so since the book of the same name that Annabel McGoldrick and I published in 2005, which gathered together insights from our experiences as reporters in UK television and radio and as trainers and facilitators of workshops for professional journalists in several countries-along with a broad overview of relevant theoretical perspectives on both peace and journalism. In it, we put forward a definition that has been quoted in most subsequent published work in the field: Peace Journalism is when editors and reporters make choices-of what to report and how to report it-that create opportunities for society at large to consider and value nonviolent responses to conflict. (Lynch and McGoldrick, 2005: 5) This formula is deliberately non-specific on various salient issues. It contains no commitment to the type of conflict being reported, for example. A significant cross-section of research in PJ has concerned itself with the business of war reporting-that is, how journalists respond to the 'hot phase' of a violent conflict (such as the articles collected in Ross and Tehranian, 2008). Both Blasi (2009) and Mogekwu (2011) argue that this phase of 'manifest' conflict offers, if anything, a less propitious milieu for the exertion of journalistic agency implied in the definition, than the previous phase where conflict is 'latent' (p. 244), with attitudes and behaviours confined largely to symbolic domains. By emphasizing that it is for 'society at large'-or, in other iterations, 'readers and audiences'-to consider the value of non-violent responses, it situates PJ firmly in the realm of professional journalism, committed to factual reporting. It is for the journalism to provide the opportunities for such considering and valuing: if such responses-once considered-are rejected, 'there is nothing else journalism can do about it, while remaining
2016
I will define peace journalism as a normative theory claiming that the media ought to play a positive role in promoting peace. The basic premise of peace journalism is that if contemporary media tend to play a negative role in terms of increasing the tensions between and among the sides of a conflict, they can also play a positive role by promoting peace and reconciliation. Although it seems a good idea to promote peace journalism in journalistic circles, we should be aware of the formidable obstacles to this practice. I will outline these obstacles and comment on them. I argue that Journalists find easier to follow the official line, or to “index ” themselves to the “official politics”. This protects journalists from criticism and helps them to “frame ” conflict in a consensual manner. While this is the general trend, I will make some concluding suggestions to promote peace journalism as a suitable alternative to contemporary journalistic practices.