A01- Media, Conflict and Conflict Resolution

The open-­‐ended revolutionary projects in the Middle East and the Occupy Wall Street movement have showcased the role of the media in expanding the public sphere and widening the virtualization of social institutions. They also illustrate the interventionism and determinism of the new and traditional media, as meta-­‐media, in giving rise to a new consciousness and cultural order, and sometimes in changing political structures.

As communication action theorist Juergen Habermas argues, the current media have colonized the lifeworld. Sociology and communication studies have shown the interconnectedness between media narratives and how we develop our understanding, perceptions, and positions. Norm Friesen and Theo Hug (2009) argue that the “media not only present a necessary precondition for knowledge in everyday practice, understood as semiotic systems, it also shapes what it is possible to know and also to think." However, the scope of how the mass media influence our understanding, shape our perceptions, and control our knowledge is still understudied. Also, Conflict Resolution has not yet invested in some networking relationship with the media in addressing social change and formulating a mediatized framework of Conflict Resolution.

This course critically examines the power of the media, as an institution, either in perpetuating conflict escalation or stimulating some resolution. It discusses the impact of mediatization as a process of social change which subsumes other social and cultural fields into the logic of the media. It also explores what remain uncontested behind the journalists’ repertoire of ‘neutrality’, ‘objectivity’, and ‘balance’, which has weakened with the emergence of spin journalism which has overshadowed the "CNN effect" and other journalistic genres since the mid-­‐1990s. The course assesses the actual and potential role of peace journalism in transforming reporters’ working habits, norms, and worldviews in conflict settings, and explores the prospects of mediatized conflict resolution.