Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Communication for peace'

Information and communication technology (ICT) facilitates both the perpetuation of conflict and the coherence of peacebuilding efforts. ICT enhances the reach of belligerents motivated to promote conflict. ICT also accelerates the diffusion of narratives about the history, groups and motivations within conflict. These narratives promote rapid self-selection into identity groups within or on the periphery of a conflict, and reinforce motivations to continue or increase one’s commitment to conflict. ICT also allows peacebuilders to coordinate, cooperate and assess their impact on a faster, more comprehensive and more accurate basis. Tools that promote situational awareness of peacebuilding efforts can enable peacebuilders to achieve efficiency and impact through specialization. ICT that facilitates awareness of shared problems and opportunities for collaboration can prompt cooperation among both international and local peacebuilders. ICT further enhances the scope, accuracy and speed of peacebuilding monitoring and evaluation efforts. Conflict and peacebuilding are activities defined by the motivations of groups. ICT does not change these motivations, but it affords their operationalization. The peacebuilding community must adapt to the challenges and opportunities posed by the introduction of tools which allow ideas to rapidly inspire larger groups to act and be accountable for activities in peace and violence.

This research used a series of qualitative measurements of media coverage to investigate how differences in characteristics of a terrorist related event correlate with qualitative differences in media coverage. The first part of this study determined that there were tools to measure differences in the quality of coverage. Three variables showed significant differences in coverage. Coverage differed in the structure of the news account- in whose shoes the reader enters the story. The differences between entering through the perspective of the victim, the perpetrator or the context have been correlated by Cerulo (1998) with different messages of the legitimacy of the actors. Victim sequences signal deviant (illegitimate) violence, perpetrator sequences signal legitimate violence and contextual sequences signal ambiguous violence. Coverage also differed in the extent to which an article provided contextual information or focused strictly on the details of the event. Providing contextual information is important for terrorist groups because it includes information on the grievances of the group as well as the history of the conflict. This variable was measured as an episodic or thematic frame. Explanations of motivation for participation in terrorism also differed based on characteristics of an event. As with contextual coverage, presenting themes of causation or motivation for the account is a way for terrorist groups to present grievances and history of the conflict. Combining these three variables into a favorable coverage variable helped makes sense of competing trends in the data. This first section set up a system for evaluating the qualitative impact on media coverage of choices that terrorist groups and governments make. What stands out is a paradox for a terrorist group around the use of violence. Both here and in other studies, violence has been shown to be an effective means of getting through the media gatekeeping and achieving coverage, but it is also associated with a decrease in favorable coverage. Number of casualties is also negatively associated with favorable coverage. Hence the paradox that, in order to achieve coverage, based on criteria of newsworthiness, violence may often be necessary, but violent action actually decreases the number of articles presenting the kind of information terrorist groups want to get across. Looking at the paired cases, what was most significant was the lack of change in the favorability of coverage before and after events. The implication is that while terrorist groups may have some control over whether or not their actions get covered, media organizations develop fairly resilient patterns for covering those actions, irrespective of the nature of the action. Terrorist groups essentially have less capacity to actually manipulate the type of coverage they receive than is commonly believed. While there were some very small effects, the favorability of coverage immediately following an event is essentially the same as before it. The difference lies in the actual amount of coverage. While short-term impacts were slight, there are substantial differences both in quantity and quality over the life of the conflict, a longer term view may allow for better understanding of changes in media coverage.

Mediation offers an increasingly popular way for disputing parties to work together toward resolving their conflicts, yet there are few studies of the actual voiced interactions between mediation parties and experienced mediators. This research project studied 10 face-to-face interpersonal mediation sessions involving 34 participants. The study provides in-depth and multidimensional understanding of how experienced mediators assist disputing parties in refraining from or moving beyond the futility of blamescaping, toward cooperating on mutually acceptable resolution of their conflicts. (Blamescaping refers to verbal blaming behaviors, including accusations in the form of scapegoating.)

Findings from initial data analysis, employing the Voice-Centered Relational method’s Listening Guide, showed that experienced mediators were able to help disputing parties by interceding and interposing in a variety of co-implicated ways related to the form, process, and content of mediation discourse. These ways emerged as strong patterns, and include cooperation coaching, encouraging short opening statements, interrupting blamescaping, supporting focus on the future rather than the past, mutualizing statements, avoiding criticism of the parties, frequent use of questions, and parties echoing mediators. Through a second level of in-depth data analysis and interpretation, those patterns of interpositions and intercessions were found to be consistent with each of three conceptual lenses: René Girard’s mimetic theory of conflict, genre analysis in conflict resolution, and narrative mediation praxis.

Implications of how the research findings can serve as a resource for conflict resolution practitioners, mediator training and continuing education, and applied mediation ethics are discussed. Recommendations for ways the mediation profession can support additional research, along with suggestions for future research studies, also are provided.

ABSTRACT

The principal objective of this inductive study is to map the communication methods that are being used in the organization Sister Namibia. I intend to find communication mechanisms that together can constitute a communication framework. The main questions at issue are; How is the organization working from a communication perspective? What methods and channels are central for their external communication work? What messages are they trying to convey to the target group? The questions will generate in analyses and deeper understandings of communication processes in a NGO.

The conceptual approach for the study is Development Communication, which can be seen as the integration of strategic communication in development projects. Communication for Social Change is an approach of development communication, where focus lays on an elaborated social change agenda rather than the agenda of strategic communication. The study has a qualitative approach and it is built up as an inductive case study with the NGO Sister Namibia in focus.

Sister Namibia is a non governmental women organization that fights for women’s rights in the Namibian society. I have found several factors in their communication work that together can create a communication framework. Dialogue is vital in their communication work and it can be seen as a prerequisite for social change. Another central aspect of their communication framework is networking. Sister Namibia can be seen as a piece of puzzle in a bigger network that allows the organization to reach a wider audience and it is a strategy for how they can gain power, grow and establish deeper in the society. The diversity among women makes it necessary with a communication framework that provides flexibility, which includes different communication methods and channels depending on the target group. A holistic approach in the communication framework is important; the communication have to be focused on change at individual, societal and governmental levels. Furthermore, I have observed that to be able to understand processes of communication it is vital to look at the whole social context. In this social context knowledge, power, and material & social needs have been found as central aspects. They are needs and factors that are gained and created by individuals and groups in societies, and can be seen as prerequisites for social change to appear. Finally, this study shows the importance of looking at communication not just as a tool for spreading information, but also as the goal of development. Through communication it is possible to create a social environment where private and public dialogue can take place.

Keywords: Development communication, Communication for Social Change, NGO, Dialogue, Networking, Flexibility, Holistic approach.

Abstract

Title: Krig och fred - 080808. Freds-, krigsjournalistik och propaganda i mediernas rapportering om Georgienkriget: en komparativ studie av Sveriges, Rysslands och USA:s press. (War and peace – 080808. Peace Journalism, War Journalism and Propaganda in the Media´s Reporting on the Georgia War: a Comparative Study of the Swedish, Russian and American Press.)

Authors: Daniel Lövgren & Tatiana Makarova

Tutor: Anna Roosvall

Course: Bachelor Thesis: Media and Communication, PR

Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to compare how the press in Sweden, Russia and the USA reported on the war in Georgia 2008. Focus is put on identifying the extent to which the reporting is governed by war journalism or peace journalism and, to which degree propaganda, that is one of the aspects of war journalism, is present in the different countries press.

Methodology: Quantitative content analysis and critical discourse analysis

Theoretical perspectives: The essay leans on the theoretical foundation of peace journalism and war journalism proposed by the Norwegian peace researcher Johan Galtung, further elaborated by the journalists Jake Lynch and Annabel McGoldrick. This essay also uses a theoretical framework on propaganda, among other the “Propaganda model” by Herman and Chomsky, the research of Kempf and Loustarinen and journalistic observations of Lynch and McGoldrick.

Conclusions: The study reveals both similarities and differences between the reporting on the Georgia war in the analyzed countries. The quantitative content analysis of 600 articles in nine different newspapers (three in each country) shows that it is the war journalistic framework that is dominating in all the three countries. The results also show that there is a difference between the support given to the parties involved in the war. In the USA and Sweden the majority of the articles are pro-Georgian and in Russia the majority of the articles take pro-South Ossetian/Russian stance. The critical discourse analysis of eight articles have shown similarities and differences in scale, design, content and the presence of propaganda. Indicators of propaganda in the analyzed material include a breakdown of the actors in the war to two opposing parties, a polarization between “us” and “them” where the first is humanized and the later demonized, a wide use of elite sources.  

Keywords: Peace journalism, war journalism, propaganda, Georgia war, South Ossetia, Swedish press, Russian press, American press