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Susan Dente Ross
(De)Constructing Conflict: A Focused Review of War and Peace Journalism
This overview of the
media and conflict literature and case study of media coverage of peace
offers a framework and guidance for peace journalism.
Many studies show media rarely report conflict neutrally. Human psychology,
journalistic norms, and structural constraints draw media away from complex
historical reporting of violence. Limited systematic research on media
coverage of peace is insufficient to direct response to prevalent war
journalism. A case study of The Washington Report coverage of Middle East
peace initiatives suggests problems in media coverage of peace. It demonstrates
five trends in press orientations. Peace initiatives are: 1. political
maneuvering and strategic posturing, 2. rhetorical games to mask intractable
differences, 3. a charade among players with little belief in their success,
4. fragile and impermanent, and 5. an exercise in doublespeak and distortion.
Peace journalists are divided between an activist, advocacy role for media
and a definition of peace journalism as quality, objective journalism
that includes under-represented perspectives to provide deeper and broader
information. The divide reflects long-standing imprecision and ideological
objectives in the fields of conflict studies, peace studies, conflict
resolution, and more. Thus, economic theorists contend that industry structure
and profit-motives drive media to privilege the powerful, limiting the
potential for change. The propaganda model of media suggests peace journalism
initiatives are impotent because media are a mouthpiece for government.
Some say the realities of the post-Cold War world undermine quality journalism,
and local media are an inefficient and limited mechanism to disseminate
dissident ideas. Critical scholars view peace journalism as flawed, ineffectual,
or certain to be co-opted. However, media texts are subject to multiple
interpretations; cracks in the monolith offer opportunities for reform.
Peace journalism must transform deeply trained professional patterns,
structural and financial pressures, and psychological responses that encourage
reactive, nationalistic reporting. Peace journalists must listen well,
hear "the other" better, and understand and incorporate that
new understanding to transcend the bonds of identity and enmity. Effective
peace journalism must be a journalism of symbolic rapprochement. It must
recognize journalists as human beings subject to the same social, political,
religious and nationalistic pressures as all people. Restructuring and
retraining to insulate independent media and journalists from economic
and political pressures are critical. Increased pluralism in ownership,
structures, and revenue streams is key. Training must inoculate journalists
against knee-jerk responses to fear and violence. Peace journalism must
embrace awareness of the varied identities and realities of parties to
a conflict, the subjective and contextual nature of root causes, and the
trap of dualisms.
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On the author:
Susan Dente Ross is an associate dean at Washington State University, a
Fulbright Senior Scholar, and a former journalist and newspaper owner. Her
research focuses on the roles of legal and media institutions in creating,
perpetuating, or resolving social divisions and conflict. An expert in media
and legal practices that undermine full political participation and foment
conflict, she has focused on how these institutions support intercultural
conflict and the circumstances under which they encourage peace and democratic
participation. Her work contributes to several multi-national projects to
reform media practices and develop a university peace journalism curriculum.
Address: College of Liberal Arts, 309E Thompson Hall, PO Box 642630,
Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164 USA
eMail: suross@wsu.edu
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