Journalism in Conflict –Affected North-east: Editors and Professional Roles By Amina Yaguda,Documentary Producer and an Instructor at the Communications and Multimedia Design Department AUN, Yola
March 1, 2022
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Posted by: Imoh Robert
What is the character of the North East
African Resilience ?
Elasticity, the capacity to continue projecting the self into the future in spite of experiences of trauma, crisis, and emotional pain.
Adamawa
Cultural motif
Cameroon, Chad,
Multi-ethnic, Religious diversity
80 -90 languages
As a microcosm of the NE, its been traumatized, bashed and battered
Freud says childhood trauma
Peace Journalism
Peace journalism appeared in the mid 1990’s as a trans-disciplinary field in the conflict –media nexus.
The experiences of conflicts globally brought to the fore the role of journalism and the media in political processes.
Peace studies seeks to understand the negation of violence through conflict transformation, cooperation and harmony by drawing from many disciplines.
Disciplines include psychology, sociology and anthropology, political science, economics, international relations, international law and history.
This raises the problem of the complementarity, coexistence and integration of different systems of knowledge.
Lynch and McGoldrick (2005) define peace journalism as a set of conceptual and practical tools intended to equip journalist for better public service
It is an intentional strategy towards accurate reporting of conflict in a socially conscious manner without escalating tensions or inciting violence.
Lynch (2013) Peace journalism is solution oriented, highlighting peace initiatives, and in the aftermath of violence, efforts to promote resolution, reconstruction and reconciliation.
Peace journalisms urges reporters and audiences to pause, question and critically examine their response to conflict reportage.
Peace Journalism
Can the absence of war signal peace?
Passive aggressive?
Simmering
Open, inclusive , public spaces, question authority without fear
Peace
Positive peace (Attitudes , institutions & structures that create and sustain peaceful society)
Negative peace (Absence of violence or fear of violence
Conflict
Coser (1956) defines conflict as the struggle over values and claims to scarce status, power and resources.
Violent conflicts in Nigeria today, validate this definition. From herders farmers conflicts to kidnapping and banditry, IPOB agitations, political conflicts etc.
It is highly unlikely that conflicts will cease to exist in the world as they occur as a result of human differences in values, beliefs and traditions.
Conflicts occurs and progresses in stages. Lynch and Galtung (2010) argue that conflict can also be a good thing, an opportunity for human progress, finding new ways, imaginative creative and transformational without violence.
Conflict
There’s often conflict before violence breaks out.
Violent cultures legitimize violence, like machismo;
Violent structures exploit, repress and alienate people;
Violent actors, bullies with no concern for the hurt and harm they cause;
These combine to form basic conflicts that are left unattended.
Life Cycle of Conflict
Conflict appears, reaches an emotional, even violent climax, then tapers off, disappears and often reappears.
There is a logic behind this, since individuals and groups (such as nations and states) have goals:
Goals may be incompatible and mutually exclusive, like two states wanting the same land, or two nations wanting the same state;
When goals are incompatible, a contradiction, an issue, is born;
The more basic the goal, such as basic needs and interests, the more any actor or party with unrealized goals feels frustrated;
Frustration may lead to aggression, turning inwards as attitudes of hatred, or outwards as behaviour of verbal or physical violence;
Hatred and violence may be directed towards those who hold the goals and stand in the way, but it is not always that ‘‘rational’’;
Violence is intended to harm and hurt (including oneself) and may breed a spiral of counter-violence in the form of defense and/or revenge;
This spiral of violence becomes a meta-conflict (like a cancerous metastasis), going beyond the goals of preserving and destroying.
Galtung on Peace
Direct violence is intentional with an actor
Structural violence is often not intended but committed by an act of omission
Cultural Violence is driven by legitimization of harmful ideas
Father of Peace
Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung is considered the father of pace & conflict studies
Galtung and Ruge (1965) in their analysis of foreign news war coverage describe the counter paradigm of peace journalism as oriented towards peace processes against violent events
Galtung on Peace
Peace is the absence or reduction of violence of all kinds
Peace is non violent and creative conflict transformation
The true test of peace is the ability to handle conflict without recourse to violence
Cardinal points of Peace Journalism
Peace, truth, people, solutions
At the core of peace journalism is the supremacy of truth over negative propaganda.
People over elite
Solution over victory
Role of Media in Peace Journalism
To provide timely and credible information
To alert audiences to emergency services
To report conflict neutrally
Hindrances
Government pressure
Political influences
Negative propaganda
Foreign Policy
Private business interests
Indigenous cultures and traditions
Framing
McCombs and Shaw (1972)
Audiences learn how much importance is attached to public issues based on the level of media emphasis on issues. Framing and agenda setting of the news affect the process of formation of public opinion. Framing also reflects the perceptions and prejudices of journalists
Framing can help influence public opinion towards resolving conflict .
Avoid use of language that frames the stories in a provocative or stereotypical manner.
Lynch and McGoldrick (2005) suggest journalists avoid using words like genocide, it means wiping out an entire people. In UN terms, it is the killing of more than half a million people.
Deep meanings, root causes, social contexts
Find news in peace
Positive Perspectives
Even though the journalistic ideal is for objectivity, when pitched between perpetrator of conflict and agent of peace, there should be no contest about where the loyalty of a journalist should be.
However, peace journalism should never be misconstrued for peace advocacy.
Reporting Conflict
Peace , Truth, People, solution
People Oriented
Context
Solutions oriented
Proactive reporting
Context is vital to understanding the outbreak of a conflict (which should not be seen as an isolated event).
Causes, issues and goals can often be traced back through history. By focusing only on the ongoing conflict, reporting is more likely to fuel further violence
Culture can also be an important factor, by allowing room in news reporting for a greater understanding of the cultural context, what had originally seemed like ‘strange’ behavior from one party may become more understandable.
Culture defines people’s identity.
Language, religion, ethnicity and nationality, can be an important source of conflict between individuals and groups.
Huntington (1993) posits that cultural factors are more likely to cause violent conflict than other factors since actors are less likely to compromise on such issues
People fight to maintain their own cultural identity or to remove others, and various
Conflict
There’s often conflict before violence breaks out.
Violent cultures legitimize violence, like machismo;
Violent structures exploit, repress and alienate people;
Violent actors, bullies with no concern for the hurt and harm they cause;
These combine to form basic conflicts that are left unattended.
Life Cycle of Conflict
Conflict appears, reaches an emotional, even violent climax, then tapers off, disappears and often reappears.
There is a logic behind this, since individuals and groups (such as nations and states) have goals:
Goals may be incompatible and mutually exclusive, like two states wanting the same land, or two nations wanting the same state;
When goals are incompatible, a contradiction, an issue, is born;
The more basic the goal, such as basic needs and interests, the more any actor or party with unrealized goals feels frustrated;
Frustration may lead to aggression, turning inwards as attitudes of hatred, or outwards as behaviour of verbal or physical violence;
Hatred and violence may be directed towards those who hold the goals and stand in the way, but it is not always that ‘‘rational’’;
Violence is intended to harm and hurt (including oneself) and may breed a spiral of counter-violence in the form of defense and/or revenge;
This spiral of violence becomes a meta-conflict (like a cancerous metastasis), going beyond the goals of preserving and destroying.
Galtung on Peace
Direct violence is intentional with an actor
Structural violence is often not intended but committed by an act of omission
Cultural Violence is driven by legitimization of harmful ideas
Father of Peace
Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung is considered the father of pace & conflict studies
Galtung and Ruge (1965) in their analysis of foreign news war coverage describe the counter paradigm of peace journalism as oriented towards peace processes against violent events
Galtung on Peace
Peace is the absence or reduction of violence of all kinds
Peace is non violent and creative conflict transformation
The true test of peace is the ability to handle conflict without recourse to violence
Cardinal points of Peace Journalism
Peace, truth, people, solutions
At the core of peace journalism is the supremacy of truth over negative propaganda.
People over elite
Solution over victory
Role of Media in Peace Journalism
To provide timely and credible information
To alert audiences to emergency services
To report conflict neutrally
Hindrances
Government pressure
Political influences
Negative propaganda
Foreign Policy
Private business interests
Indigenous cultures and traditions
Framing
McCombs and Shaw (1972)
Audiences learn how much importance is attached to public issues based on the level of media emphasis on issues. Framing and agenda setting of the news affect the process of formation of public opinion. Framing also reflects the perceptions and prejudices of journalists
Framing can help influence public opinion towards resolving conflict .
Avoid use of language that frames the stories in a provocative or stereotypical manner.
Lynch and McGoldrick (2005) suggest journalists avoid using words like genocide, it means wiping out an entire people. In UN terms, it is the killing of more than half a million people.
Deep meanings, root causes, social contexts
Find news in peace
Positive Perspectives
Even though the journalistic ideal is for objectivity, when pitched between perpetrator of conflict and agent of peace, there should be no contest about where the loyalty of a journalist should be.
However, peace journalism should never be misconstrued for peace advocacy.
Reporting Conflict
Peace , Truth, People, solution
People Oriented
Context
Solutions oriented
Proactive reporting
Context is vital to understanding the outbreak of a conflict (which should not be seen as an isolated event).
Causes, issues and goals can often be traced back through history. By focusing only on the ongoing conflict, reporting is more likely to fuel further violence
Culture can also be an important factor, by allowing room in news reporting for a greater understanding of the cultural context, what had originally seemed like ‘strange’ behavior from one party may become more understandable.
Culture defines people’s identity.
Language, religion, ethnicity and nationality, can be an important source of conflict between individuals and groups.
Huntington (1993) posits that cultural factors are more likely to cause violent conflict than other factors since actors are less likely to compromise on such issues
People fight to maintain their own cultural identity or to remove others, and various
Story telling
Narrative is a fundametal way in which humans make sense of the world. (Origin stories,myths etc)
A chain of events in cause-effect relationship
Character Arc
A compelling character arc has a character facing fears and overcoming challenges as the story unfolds, usually resulting in the character’s personal growth.
A character arc is simply a summary of the journey of a character over the course of a story.
The Character’s journey leads to resolution.
Character arcs usually are in line with the traditional three-act story structure.
Most start with the inciting incident that sets up the stakes and central conflict facing this character.
Transformational arc : Acharacter goes from being a regular person at the beginning of the story to a hero over the course of the story. eg: epic stories and the archetypal hero’s journey story structure
Cinderella
Positive change arc: Similar to a transformational arc usually not as dramatic. A character experience positive change over the course of a story.
Character starts out with a negative outlook or characteristics and develop a positive worldview by the end of the story.
Example: In A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge starts out as a rich old miser consumed by greed. Over the course of our story, he comes to change his views and becomes a benevolent and charitable person.