Can Peace Journalism Make Progress?

Abstract

Johan Galtung’s criticisms in the 1970s of media representations that glamorize war evolved as the peace journalism alternative approach. Since then, peace journalism has developed into a philosophical framework and an arsenal of framing techniques, but has been criticized for conceptual and practical weaknesses, and the need to strengthen its methodology, conceptual framework and empirical validation. This study of the 2006 Lebanon War press coverage in Canada and Israel aims at contributing to the empirical dimension. Stories published on and during the war by the Canadian Toronto Sun and the Israeli Yediot Aharonot were content analysed according to criteria adapted from the literature. General findings demonstrate an expected tendency towards ‘war journalism’. Comparative findings for each newspaper, however, show that peace journalism is not entirely disregarded. While the study indicates both the salience and the resilience of war journalism, it also concludes that there are opportunities for the advancement of peace journalism and professional practices that could be adopted to achieve this.

Peace and war journalism in the New Zealand media: Reporting on ‘the arc of instability’ in the Pacific

“…These elements build upon each other and reinforce these filters: 'The raw material of news must pass through successive filters, leaving only the cleansed residue fit to print ' (p.166). This is supported by Shinar's (2009) findings on the coverage of the 2006 Lebanon War where elite-oriented sources, such as government and military, were used rather than people-oriented sources. These elite sources 'want to use journalism to promote their version of the war to the world and hence shape the behaviour of the public in their favour' (Richardson, 2007, p. 181).…”

Peace journalism in times of ‘war risks’: Coverage of the hydrocarbons conflict in Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot newspapers

“…A 'Content Analysis Coding Sheet' based on Galtung's (1998) famous WJ and PJ chart has been utilised to better present the data collected. The model used for the coding sheet to determine PJ and WJ is adopted from Lee et al (2006) and Shinar (2009). Whilst Lee et al (2006) have 13 indicators for PJ and WJ, Shinar (2009) has 10 indicators.…”

“…The model used for the coding sheet to determine PJ and WJ is adopted from Lee et al (2006) and Shinar (2009). Whilst Lee et al (2006) have 13 indicators for PJ and WJ, Shinar (2009) has 10 indicators. The present study adopted and used four of these indicators and the fifth and sixth indicators are developed specifically by this study for analysing the escalated conflicts.…”

“…First, it attempts to supplement the rather limited scholarship on comparative PJ on global and local level -where vernacular/domestic press of conflicting parties are addressed. Although numerous comparative cross-national research in this field (e.g., Cozma and Kozman, 2017;Shinar, 2009;Workneh, 2011) only a few studies address print media of conflicting parties on specific cases (e.g., Baden and Tenenboim-Weinblatt, 2017;Ersoy, 2010;Lee, 2010;Lee et al, 2006;Lee and Maslog, 2005). Secondly, by focusing on an escalated conflict, it aims to fill a void in PJ research, in terms of operationalizing PJ, other than 'war reporting'.…”

Advancing a disability rights agenda in a context of war: Challenges and opportunities

“…These conflicts, including the civil war (1975−1990) and various Israeli aggressions, have been fed by sectarian divisions shaped by colonial and neocolonial interventions in the region (Faour, 2007). Of particular relevance to the current study is the July 2006 War with Israel which spanned 33 days of devastation to the infrastructure of the country and led to the death, impairment, and displacement of thousands to regions within and outside of Lebanon (Nyers, 2010;Shinar, 2009).…”