Media and Conflict Resolution: A Framework for Analysis

Despite the critical significance of the roles played by media in conflict and conflict resolution, this area has been relatively neglected by both scholars and practitioners. Most existing studies focus on the often negative contributions of the media to the escalation and violence phases of conflict. Very few studies deal with the actual or potential media contributions to conflict resolution and reconciliation. Indeed, the media, particularly radio and television, were instrumental in fomenting conflict and violence in places such as Rwanda and Bosnia. The Danish cartoon controversy also demonstrates that the media can even cause a violent conflict. Scholars and practitioners have noticed how the media exacerbate conflict and have concluded that the media’s role can be reversed and converted into positive contributions to conflict resolution. This reversal, however, is difficult to achieve. It is always easier to foment conflict than resolve it, and the media’s role in conflict resolution is more complicated than the roles of those dominating the violence phase. The paucity of research and analysis of the media’s role in conflict resolution may be attributed to the difficulties inherent in multidisciplinary research and the absence of adequate tools, models, and frameworks for analysis. There are serious gaps between theoreticians and practitioners in the fields of conflict resolution, communication, and journalism. Gaps also exist between theoreticians and practitioners within each of these groups. One way to reduce these gaps is to construct a multidisciplinary framework for analysis and practice. This study attempts to offer such a framework

Moving media and conflict studies beyond the CNN effect

After the ‘CNN effect’ concept was coined two decades ago, it quickly became a popular shorthand to understand media-conflict interactions. Although the connection has probably always been more complex than what was captured in the concept, research needs to be updated in order to better understand the multifaceted contemporary environments of both media and conflict. There are growing numbers and types of media sources, and multiple interactions between media and conflict actors, policymakers and engaged publics from the local to the global and back. We argue that understanding the impact of media reporting on conflict requires a new framework that captures the multilevel and hybrid media environments of contemporary conflicts. This study provides a roadmap of how to systematically unpack this environment. It describes and explains how different levels, interactions, and forms of news reporting shape conflicts and peacebuilding in local, national and regional contexts, and how international responses interact with multiple media narratives. With these tools, comprehensive understandings of contemporary local to global media interactions can be incorporated into new research on media and conflict

Searching for a Theory of Public Diplomacy

55 This work presents and critically evaluates attempts to theorize and conceptualize public diplomacy within several disciplines, including international relations, strategic studies, diplomatic studies, public relations, and communication. It also examines research methods used to investigate public diplomacy, including models, paradigms, case studies, and comparative analysis. The work identifies promising directions as well as weaknesses and gaps in existing knowledge and methodology and outlines a new research agenda. The presented analysis and examples suggest that only a systematic multidisciplinary effort and close collaboration between researchers and practitioners can lead to a coherent theory of public diplomacy. Keywords: the new public diplomacy; instruments of public diplomacy; models of public diplomacy; international public relations; national image and reputation; nation branding; soft power; media framing P ublic diplomacy is a new field of practice and scholarship. It attracted attention in the previous century when diplomacy fell under the scrutiny of the media and public opinion. It became a more substantial area during the cold war, dominated by campaigns to garner support for the delicate balance of nuclear weapons and the ideological battle for the hearts and minds of people around the world. Public diplomacy of the cold war inspired many studies of the different tools the superpowers and other states used to achieve their international goals. A new phase in the development of public diplomac

Media and International Conflict: A Multidisciplinary Approach

This study suggests a new framework for analysis of media coverage and its role in international conflict. The framework is based on integration of theories and models from both international studies and communication. The work begins with a brief analysis of major changes that have occurred in last two decades in the nature and evolution of international conflicts. The analysis offers significant distinctions among types, levels, and phases of conflict. Next, the study presents major changes that have occurred in the media and offers significant distinctions among levels, types, and functions of media. Based on all these concepts and ideas, the last part presents a new multidisciplinary and multidimensional framework for analysis