Mediating Post-Conflict Dialogue: The Media's Role in Transitional Justice Processes (original) (raw)

Related papers

Politics, Policy and the Role of News Media in Democracies: Reflecting the Modern Experiences

Since the media is a political entity and plays a significant role in the state apparatus, it is vital to examine the variables that lead to its prominent status. These considerations serve as the backdrop for the discussions in this article. Considering the significance of news media, this paper primarily focuses on three areas. Evaluating the news media's status and looking into the relationship between the government and the media is the initial goal. The second aim is to investigate who controls whom in the course of political or nonpolitical communications. Significantly, while emphasizing the news media's relevance in democracy, the paper goes into detail on its positives and negatives, which is the third objective. A core objective of this paper is to demonstrate that the existence of news media in democracies is essential and its power is evident, regardless of its positive or negative features. It is essential to note that this paper does not seek to contest, deny, or praise the news media's presence in democratic systems. However, it intends to draw that the position and role of media is influential, which needs to be realized and viewed in the sense of politics 1 .

Media and politics: a new paradigma?

2010

The exercise of political power in a democracy is primarily made through communication with institutions, civil society and individuals. What happens if governments have to deal with an enormous increase of mass, personal and interactive communication like the latest "explosion of communication"? The new media landscape arises issues in the relation of democratic governments with society, specially when it comes to the exercise of its power. In the past, media influenced not only the way government spoke with citizens but the political process and the media-politics relationship. Now it seems governments all over the world are successfully changing the media and the news. New attacks on the freedom of the press and journalists happen all over the world in either liberal or conservative regimes. This article with look for examples from several countries, as France, Italy, Portugal, Venezuela, Argentina, the United States and Russia, and will try to draw a picture and not just to gather a sum of anecdotical evidence. Can these strains and limitations result from the "excess" of nongovernment communications, leading governments to overtake the media, by legal procedures, exerting economic pressure, interfering in the media or upgrading their own marketing, propaganda and misinformation? The present day governmental hyperpropaganda and the constraints on journalists activity hint at the emergence of a new paradigma in the governments-media relation: severe constraints within a formal democracy. It is widely accepted that "attempts by governments to control and manipulate the media are universal because public officials everywhere believe that media are important political forces" and that, in consequence, nowhere are the media totally free from formal and informal government and social controls, even in times of peace. On the whole, authoritarian governments control more extensively and more rigidly than nonauthoritarian ones, but all control systems represent a point of continuum. There are also gradations of control within nations, depending on the current regime and political setting, regional and local variations, and then nature of news. The specifics of control systems vary from country to country, but the overall patterns are similar (Graber, 2010: 16). Hallin and Mancini (2004) theorised media systems with a mutual dependency between political and media institutions and practices, avoiding the paradigma of media always being the dependent variable on relation to the system of social control which it reflects: "media institutions have an impact of their own on other social structures" (Hallin and Mancini, 2004: 8). Considering that mutual dependency, they proposed three models of media systems: the Mediterranean or Polarized Pluralist (including Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain), the North and Central European or 1 Please do not quote without consulting the author.

THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN DEEPENING DEMOCRA

Since the 17 th century, the role of the press as Fourth Estate and as a forum for public discussion and debate has been recognized. Today, despite the mass media's propensity for sleaze, sensationalism and superficiality, the notion of the media as watchdog, as guardian of the public interest, and as a conduit between governors and the governed remains deeply ingrained.

The supposed and the real role of mass media in modern democracy

Paper presented at the 11'th meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology, Vienna, July 16-20, 2003., 2003

A range of different scientific disciplines are explored for what they might contribute to an understanding of the economic and other factors that influence mass media, and how the media in turn influence the political climate and the democratic process in modern democracies. The contributions from the different disciplines are combined into an integrated model of a causal network. This tentative model shows that fierce economic competition forces the media to produce entertaining stories that appeal to people's emotions. Preferred topics include danger, crime, and disaster, which the media select in ways that make the audience perceive the world as more dangerous than it is. This influences the democratic process significantly in the direction of authoritarianism and intolerance. More generally, the competitive news media select and frame stories in ways that hamper the ability of the democratic system to solve internal social problems as well as international conflicts in an optimal way. These effects are unintended consequences of the structure of the media market. The empirical support for each element in the theory, as well as for the integrated model as a whole, is discussed in an appendix."

THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN DEEPENING DEMOCRACY

Since the 17 th century, the role of the press as Fourth Estate and as a forum for public discussion and debate has been recognized. Today, despite the mass media's propensity for sleaze, sensationalism and superficiality, the notion of the media as watchdog, as guardian of the public interest, and as a conduit between governors and the governed remains deeply ingrained. The reality, however, is that the media in new and restored democracy do not always live up to the ideal. They are hobbled by stringent laws, monopolistic ownership, and sometimes, the threat of brute force. State controls are not the only constraints. Serious reporting is difficult to sustain in competitive media markets that put a premium on the shallow and sensational. Moreover, the media are sometimes used as proxies in the battle between rival political groups, in the process sowing divisiveness rather than consensus, hate speech instead of sober debate, and suspicion rather than social trust. In these cases, the media contribute to public cynicism and democratic decay. Still, in many fledgling democracies, the media have been able to assert their role in buttressing and deepening democracy. Investigative reporting, which in some cases has led to the ouster of presidents and the fall of corrupt governments, has made the media an effective and credible watchdog and boosted its credibility among the public. Investigative reporting has also helped accustom officials to an inquisitive press and helped build a culture of openness and disclosure that has made democratically elected governments more accountable. Training for journalists, manuals that arm reporters with research tools, and awards for investigative reporting have helped create a corps of independent investigative journalists in several new and restored democracies. Democracy requires the active participation of citizens. Ideally, the media should keep citizens engaged in the business of governance by informing, educating and mobilising the public. In many new democracies, radio has become the medium of choice, as it is less expensive and more accessible. FM and community radio have been effective instruments for promoting grassroots democracy by airing local issues,

Mediation of Political Realities: Media as Crucial Sources of Information

Mediatization of Politics, 2014

When we want to learn about the world around us, there are basically three perceptual sources of information: personal experiences, interpersonal communication and the media (Asp, 1986). We can learn things firsthand, by communicating with other people, or by taking part of different media. For the most part, however, the media are the most important source of information. The reach of our own experiences is very limited, and the same holds true for most people we talk to. Particularly when it comes to politics and society, most of what we know-or think we know-we have learned from the media. Even in cases when we have some experiences on our own to base our knowledge on, without information from the media we do not know whether our experiences are representative of how things are or whether they are atypical (Mutz, 1998). For example, while we might have experiences of the local hospital, that does not tell us much about the quality of health care in general, and even less about factors influencing the health care system or what proposals there are to improve healthcare. Consequently, it has become a truism that modern politics is largely mediated politics (Bennett & Entman, 2000; Kaid et al., 1991; Nimmo & Combs, 1983). The extent to which the media constitute the most important source of information about politics and society has also been labeled the first dimension of mediatization and singled out as a necessary prerequisite for further processes of mediatization (Strömbäck, 2008, 2011). There might, however, be several reasons to revisit the notion that politics has become mediated and the evidence that the media are the most important source of information about politics and society. First and conceptually speaking, there is a need to distinguish between mediated and mediatized politics. Second, the media is a broad and heterogeneous category-including everything from books to newspapers, radio, television and increasingly digital media-and the relative importance of different media might vary across time as well as countries. Hence, there is a need 93 F. Esser et al. (eds.

The role of media in Democracy

This thesis examines the professional notion and attitudes of journalists in Kurdistan region, highlighting improvements in media performances in addition to indicating to the role of journalists in developing democracies and specific conflicts of journalists with societal norms, political and economic interests. Iraqi Kurdistan is an example of democratic transition in the middle of conflict hot zone. The study is based on qualitative interviews with journalists and managers of Rudaw media network.