Feature Article

War and Peace Journalism

By Brianne Ibanes

Traditionally, war reporting tends to follow the simple and familiar pattern of dichotomy. Reports present two mutually exclusive sides of a conflict. There is always a good guy ("us") and a bad guy ("them"). The media compiles information received from official government sources, and then news stories are written emphasizing a play-by-play of the violence, death toll, and military action. Often, these war reports are not accompanied by any contextual information into the reasons for the conflict, nor do they tend to follow up on the aftermath of the conflict, thereby reinforcing the idea of us versus them. To most Americans, this way of war reporting has become commonplace and we don’t give much thought to it. That is, until some journalists began asking the question: Can media be used as a peace builder?

A movement is attempting to revamp traditional war reporting by shifting the focus from violence and conflict to empathy, non-violence, and creativity through a method known as peace journalism. Peace journalism is a style of war reporting that frames stories differently than traditional war reporting.

The term “peace journalism” was originally coined by University of Hawaii Professor and founder of Transcend, a conflict mediation organization, Johan Galtung. In the late 1960s, Professor Galtung wrote a paper wrote entitled “The Structure of Foreign News,” in which he critiqued the traditional style of negative conflict-focused war reporting that existed then, and still prevails today. His ideas created the framework for the movement of peace journalism today.

Jake Lynch, a former BBC reporter and modern proponent of peace journalism, explains: “Peace journalism is when editors and reporters make choices — about what to report, and how to report it — that create opportunities for society at large to consider and to value non-violent responses to conflict.” Peace journalism aims to reprogram the way reporters report on war, the way people think about war, and the way nations handle war by employing four main principles.

The first guiding principle of peace journalism tears down the traditional dichotomy of war reporting. Peace journalism recognizes the complicated web of conflicting parties and goals. There are never just two sides to a story. Reporting news with a wider lens that is more inclusive and less ethnocentric is an important goal of peace journalism.

The second principle is to shed light on the human impact of violence — in other words, how violence affects the people in all areas of the conflict, regardless of borders. A human face is given to "them," and human sentiments are given weight and value.

The third principle is to give a voice to anyone with meaningful input, creative ideas, and non-violent solutions, regardless of which side of the conflict they are on. All ideas are valued as priceless pieces of an intricate puzzle. Creativity is needed to reach beyond the traditional mindset of parties interlocked in conflict and begin a new narrative to actively change the way people understand violence.

Finally, the fourth principle is to educate the public on the difference between stated positions and real goals. Oftentimes, information official government sources release to the public is incomplete and biased. In order to make an informed decision, the public needs to be able to receive better-balanced information.

It is important to note that peace journalism seeks to achieve all of these goals without distorting facts or only covering peaceful perspectives. Advocates believe that journalism is a powerful tool in today’s world, and if peace journalism is fairly written and used correctly, it can advance a new way of handling conflict that promotes global dialogue, de-escalation, and avoidance of violence altogether.