Understanding peace Journalism and Conflict Journalism by Abid Zafar

1. Understanding Peace Journalism
& Conflict Journalism
Abid Zafar
Lecture #1
International Islamic University Islamabad-Pakistan

2. Ideology
• The ideas of the ruling class are, in every age, the ruling ideas;
the class which is the dominant material force in society is at
the same time its dominant intellectual force.” (Karl Marx)

3. Ideology
"The class which has the means of material production at its disposal
has control at the same time over the means of metal production.” This
is done through control over the media, educational curricula, grants
and such. This is not the result of a conspiracy, rather, it is a dominant
viewpoint that pervades the culture.

4. Cont…
• Because it owns and controls the forces of production
• Marx believed that religion, the government, educational systems, and
even sports are used by the powerful to maintain the status quo.

5. Seven Parent Companies
• Sony Corporation of
America
• Time Warner
• Walt Disney
Company
• Viacom
• CBS Corporation
• General Electric
• New Corporation
Due in part to their lobbying
efforts, in 1996 congress passed
the Telecommunications Act of
1996 which eliminated many of
the caps on media ownership that
formerly limited the number of
newspapers and radio and
television stations a single firm
could control

6. Concentration of Media
Ownership
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
early 1980s early 1990s today
Number of
corporations that
dominate the media
industry

7. Internet = Diversity of Views?
• With all the options
available, we still
see most people
going to the
wealthiest media
giants 

8. Understanding Peace Journalism
• Peace Journalism is when Editors and Reporters make choices-
of what stories to report and about how to report them- that
create opportunities for society at large to consider and value
non-violent responses to conflict (Jake Lynch & McGoldrich)

9. Peace Journalism
• Uses the insights of conflict analysis and transformation to
update the concepts of balance, fairness and accuracy in
reporting
• Build an awareness of non-violence and creativity in to the
practical job of everyday editing and reporting

10. Conflict
• Mental struggle resulting from mismatched or opposing needs,
drives, wishes
• Conflict is a relationship between two or more parties
(individuals or groups) who have, or think they have,
mismatched goals, needs and interests
• Conflict is a process through which two or more actors
(‘PARTIES’) try to pursue mismatched aims or GOALS while
trying to stop the other(s) from pursuing their goals.

11. Conflict situations
Conflicts are likely to arise in circumstances where:-
 Resources are threatened (employment opportunities, housing, oil, food and water availability)
 Poor or no communication exists between parties
 Parties have incorrect or biased perceptions of each other
 There is a lack of trust
 Parties do not value the relationship between them
 Power is unequally distributed

12. Galtung Peace Journalism Model
• The original peace journalism model was setout, in table form,
by Professor John Galtung, a founder of the Academic
Subject of Peace Studies and the set of analytical and fieldwork
methods known as Peace Research

13. PEACE JOURNALISM WAR/VIOLENCE
JOURNALISM
• PEACE-ORIENTATED
• Focus on conflict formation
• Open space, open time; causes and outcomes anywhere,
also in history/culture making conflicts transparent
• Giving voice to all parties; responsiveness, understanding
see conflict/war as problem, focus on conflict creativity
• Humanization of all sides
• Proactive: avoidance before any violence/war occurs
• Focus on invisible effects of violence (disturbance and
credits, damage to structure/culture)
• WAR/VIOLENCE ORIENTATED
• Focus on conflict promotion
• Closed space, closed time; causes and exits in ground, who
threw the first stone
• Making wars, “Us-them” journalism, propaganda, voice, for
“us”
• See “them” as the problem, focus on who prevails in war,
dehumanization of “them”
• Reactive: waiting for violence before reporting
• Focus only on visible effect of violence (killed, wounded and
material damage)

14. II. TRUTH-ORIENTATED
• Expose untruths on all sides / uncover all cover-ups
II. PROPAGANDA-ORIENTATED
• Expose “their” untruths / help “our” cover-ups /lies
III. PEOPLE-ORIENTATED
• Focus on suffering all over; on women, aged children,
giving voice to voiceless
• Name to all evil-doers
• Focus on people peace-makers
III. ELITE ORIENTATED
• Focus on “our” suffering; on able-bodied elite males, being
their mouth-piece
• Give name to their evil-doers
• Focus on elite peace-makers

15. IV. SOLUTION ORIENTATED
• Peace = non-violence + creativity
• Highlight peace advantages
• Focus on structure, culture, the peaceful society
• Aftermath: resolving conflicts, reconstruction, settlement
IV. VICTORY ORIENTATED
• Peace = victory + ceasefire
• Obscure peace-initiative, before victory is at hand
• Focus on treaty, institution, the controlled society
• Leaving for another war, return if the old flashes up again

16. Find 2 Stories from the Internet Reflecting
PJ/WJ
Peace Oriented
• Truth-Oriented
• People-Oriented
• Solution Oriented
Conflict/War/Violence Oriented
• Propaganda-Oriented
• Elite-Oriented
• Victory-Oriented