Challenges and dangers in practising effective peace journalism

In an age which is marked by globalisation and technological advancement, the role of media in portraying and interpreting the conflict is acknowledged to be of great importance, especially in the coverage of political conflicts. And “peace journalism”, as opposed to “war journalism”, is considered by many media experts and scholars as the way to integrate conflict resolution in journalistic training and hence develop a more “socially responsible” journalism.

This paper examines the concepts of peace journalism and conflict resolution as “an approach” towards conflict and explores the notions of journalistic practices like objectivity in the media coverage of conflict. The paper also gives an account of several initiatives and makes a case for translating these concepts into tangibles.

The second part of this paper, however, deals with the challenges and dangers in practising effective peace journalism. On one hand, the digital revolution has changed the nature of information and communication. It has brought many challenges for the developed world, including the changing global identities, the need to respond to global events quickly and the need for psychological and physical training programmes for journalists.

But for developing countries, simple tasks such as having media access to the conflict, providing security to journalists in the field and arranging adequate resources for them are hard to accomplish. Giving examples from Iraq, Pakistan and some other countries, the paper discusses the existing disparity of resources and training in the two parts of the world. It concludes on the importance of community support in making peace journalism effective.

MIJT: Peace journalism - a goal worth striving for