Feature Article

Why Not Peace?

By Kuan-Hung “Eleven” Liu

Peace does not occur in the media; war does. But peace is anticipated; war isn’t.

Advocates for peace promote an absence of violence in society and strive to create a sense of community in the world. The absence of violence, peace, can only be obtained by maintaining its roots — resource availability, education, human rights, freedom of religion, war-prevention, etc. However, in the mass media, where economic profits are favored, the idea of peace has vanished and been twisted as more war-related news is published. A steady diet of war on television and in newspapers convinces audiences that peace is simply not achievable.

The profit pressures of a commercial news system encourage reporters to write stories that the audiences want to see instead of need to see. Gadi Wolfsfeld, a scholar of mass media discourse in civil society, has stated that the dominant news values — drama, simplicity, and ethnocentrism — are damaging to processes of peace.

Drama motivates readers’ psychological tensions; it arouses excitement, worries, and concerns. And journalists take drama as a vital consideration of what stories they should run; news with more dramatic content earns more viewers, which ultimately increases advertising profits. Drama, therefore, is a cause for the fact that more war-related stories are published in news, as wars seem to be a lot more dramatic than peace.

Simplicity allows viewers to read easily; however, it increases the possibility to mislead viewers. In a study titled, The Media in Modern Peacekeeping published in Peace Review, Lina Holguin states that journalists tend to oversimplify content as most of the published conflict-related articles are lacking adequate analysis and reasoning. Instead of giving a thorough explanation of why a war occurred, journalists may simply describe the destruction that the war has caused. The over-simplifications in news force viewers to overlook relevant contexts for understanding the issues involved and underestimate the complexity of most international conflicts.

Ethnocentrism is also problematic, as journalists tend to report stories based on their culture and their opinion. Similar to the effects of simplicity, ethnocentric news misleads viewers and makes them become biased and judgmental toward the “opponents.” Prevalent examples always occur around wartime. According to Craig Murray, a postdoctoral research assistant in School of Arts in Brunel University, London, mass media serves as a “faithful servant” during wartime with its promotion of patriotism. After reading biased stories, viewers realize their need to be resentful of the “enemies.” And what might be the consequences? More conflicts.

Journalists have created a twisted reflection of the world for the viewers — one which differs from the reality. It is time for viewers to acknowledge the consequences and call for what they really want to see: a world with peace or a world with war.