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

Abstract

The Mediterranean island of Cyprus, the last divided country in Europe, faced a grave risk of plunging into war in September 2011. The reason behind this danger was represented as the confrontation over the excavation of hydrocarbon reserves found in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. The main goal of this article is to explore the extent to which peace journalism was practiced, or not, by analysing the front-page stories of the prominent Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot newspapers about this conflict. A review of peace journalism research reveals that researchers have mainly focused on war reporting. In order to address this deficit in peace journalism research, this article focuses on a case study where there was a risk for military confrontation. The combined sample drawn from six newspapers in the respective communities indicates a strong preference towards war journalism. As the analysis further shows, the newspapers from both sides failed to discuss peaceful solutions to the hydrocarbons conflict and they also failed to discuss the negative repercussions of a possible war related to the hydrocarbons conflict.

The role of social psychological processes in journalist's war and peace journalism attitudes

“…Even though journalists and media professionals agree with the significance of peace-oriented journalism principles (Jan and Rashid Khan, 2011) and although journalists state they write to support peace, this does not equate to the practice of PJ principles (Alankuş, 2016). Hence, news coverages are commonly covered by war-oriented journalism in practice (Abid, 2017; Ersoy, 2016; Lee and Maslog, 2005; Lee et al, 2006; Maslog et al, 2006; Neumann and Fahmy, 2012; Rodny-Gumede, 2015; Siraj, 2008) and also present in Cyprus media in both communities (Avraamidou and Kyriakides, 2015; Christophorou et al, 2010; Ciftcioglu and Shaw, 2020; Ersoy, 2010, 2013; Karayianni, 2018) which is mostly controlled by the government and right-wing elites (Şahin, 2021; Şahin and Karayianni, 2020). We contend that what may impede the successful practice of PJ principles is the social-psychological obstacles, especially in place in a divided and conflicted society such as Cyprus.…”

“…The media ownership has a similar structure in that it is owned by the government, an elitist, and a political party and identifies media practices based on their ideology, political views, and economic interests (Christophorou et al, 2010;Ersoy, 2013;Hançer, 2006). Therefore, the most common practice for covering topics within the Cyprus media is dominated by the WJ approach (Bailie and Azgin, 2008;Ciftcioglu and Shaw, 2020;Ersoy, 2010Ersoy, , 2013Şahin and Ross, 2012). One of the reasons can be the lack of intergroup contact, high prejudice, or anxiety.…”

“…Therefore, it can be said that in a post-conflict and divided society, journalists’ role can fuel conflict or damage peace-building efforts by informing “about the other” in their use of PJ or WJ approaches. However, PJ principles are not the common journalism practice in Turkish Cypriot (TC) and Greek Cypriot (GC) media (Bailie and Azgin, 2008; Ciftcioglu and Shaw, 2020; Ersoy, 2010) and while a number of factors might be implicated, this research focuses on the social-psychological processes assumed to prevent the practice of PJ principles. By determining which social-psychological processes influence the practice of PJ, will help to overcome those obstacles toward sustainable peace in Cyprus.…”

Mapping Journalists' Perspectives on Peace Journalism in Pakistan: Evaluating News Media War and Peace Potential

“…In a similar vein, Lee's (2020) Constructive Journalism" paradigm depends on the press's corporate responsibility notion that the media should be concerned with the public welfare. It identifies peace journalism, "solutions journalism," and "restorative story" journalism as parts of the "Constructive Journalism" paradigm (Ciftcioglu & Shaw, 2021). Good journalism can help in nationbuilding (Nohrstedt & Ottosen, 2015).…”

“…The peace journalism framework, on the other hand, has been criticised for being normative and advocative (Ciftcioglu & Shaw, 2021), is built on naive epistemological assumptions, and it completely disregards the demands that the profession of journalism places on speech (Ersoy & Miller, 2020). Furthermore, it is hard to execute because of the inherent tension between the demands of journalism and the process of peacemaking (Youngblood, 2016).…”