Elections And The Media In Post- Conflict Africa

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Soleil Frère
Keyword(s):  
Post Conflict ◽  
The Media

scholarly journals Social communication paradoxes in post-conflict societies

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-152
Author(s):  
Olga V. Yarmak ◽  
Maria G. Bolshakova ◽  
Tatyana V. Shkayderova ◽  
Anastasia G. Maranchak
Keyword(s):  
Communication Networks ◽  
Analytical Study ◽  
Information Flows ◽  
Dual Nature ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Determining Factor

The article presents the results of a media-analytical study of information flows in Ukraine and in the “new” subjects of the Russian Federation – Crimea and Sevastopol. The relevance of the study of post-conflict societies is dictated by the fact that in the digital era, an effective military solution must be supported by participation in the formation of the information agenda and management of information flows. The cases of color revolutions allow to speak of communication as a factor in the formation of unconventional social attitudes. The results of the study carried out by the authors show that in the condition of the crisis in society, communication networks are formed often due to the external influence. Information flows of a post-conflict society are formed not only from real events of everyday life and the existing socio-political situation, but also focusing on a number of topics and discourses that must be present in the media field without fail. They act as information triggers, system trigger tools that form a different streaming of flows, which were differentiated by the authors as single – and multi-wave. The analysis of the identified flows, that represent communicative network structures, testifies to the different genesis of their emergence and functioning, but the determining factor in this process is the geopolitical request for the formation of media tracks. The authors come to conclusion that the information flows of post-conflict societies are communicative-political structures of a dual nature: they initially carry the ideas of an open and democratic society, but then form conflict situations in the civil and media fields.

scholarly journals Medijska konstrukcija kolektivnih sjećanja: Tretman prošlosti u polju novinarstva, s osvrtom na postdejtonsku Bosnu i Hercegovinu

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (2 2013) ◽  
pp. 39-65
Author(s):  
Mirza Mahmutović
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The Media

In this work we critically consider the practice of treating history in the area of journalism respectively media as an distinctive institutional arena of contemporary communities for establishment, maintenance and transformation of common frameworks of understanding and commemorating of certain episodes from the past. We intent to offer plausible explanations regarding the relations between ''culture of remembrances'' and ''culture of reporting''. Article suggests how to approach the often misunderstood history in informative activitiy, which in its field of action and by definition does not have the dimension of history but the dimension of social situation of contemporariness. We also form the key operations and strategies used in shaping the repertoire of journalistic reports on the past. Described practices we study on the example of post-Dayton BiH, analysing media treatment of conflict areas during the recent war history. Legitimisation of ethnic-national visions of the past through the discourse of reporting has been recognised as the dominant way of working in the ''media memory filed''. Two key paradoxes of these practices are highlighted: coexistence of opposite discourses of commemoration and codification of abjection experiences by the same group of significations which have initially inducted the war traumas. We point out at least two conditions which facilitate these paradoxes: ambiguity of the past, concpetion of time which is assumed by post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina as an inherently uncompleted/imperfect country and technologies of culturised steering of trauma, which is being used by regimes of therapeutic/transitional justice'' to cope with disturbing history in post-conflict communities.

scholarly journals Covering Post-Conflict Elections: Challenges for the Media in Central Africa

2011 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Soleil Frère
Keyword(s):  
Central Africa ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
The Past ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
The Press ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Many ◽  
Congo Brazzaville

In the past ten years, elections were held in six countries of Central Africa experiencing “post-conflict” situations. The polls that took place in Burundi (2005), the Central African Republic (2005), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2006), Congo-Brazzaville (2002, 2007), Chad (1996, 2001, 2006) and Rwanda (2003) were crucial for peace-building. In some cases, they were widely supported and supervised by the international community, being considered the last step of a peace process and the first step toward establishing a truly representative “post-conflict” regime. The media were expected to play a large part in supporting these elections, both to inform the citizens, so they could make an educated choice, and to supervise the way the electoral administration was organizing the polls. This paper attempts to show the many challenges faced by the media while covering these post-conflict electoral processes. In a context of great political tension, in which candidates are often former belligerents who have just put down their guns to go to the polls, the media operate in an unsafe and economically damaged environment, suffering from a lack of infrastructure, inadequate equipment and untrained staff. Given those constraints, one might wonder if the media should be considered actual democratic tools in Central Africa or just gimmicks in a “peace-building kit” (including “free and fair” elections, multipartism and freedom of the press) with no real impact on the democratic commitment of the elite or the political participation of the population.

scholarly journals ‘What they say peters down’: How non-profit leaders assess the trustworthiness of government – Elite discourse and distrust in post-conflict Northern Ireland

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-256
Author(s):  
Charis Rice ◽  
Maureen Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Theory Development ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Community Stakeholders ◽  
Political Public Relations ◽  
The Media

This article uses Northern Ireland as a research context to explore how elite discourse (from political and media actors/institutions) influences how Non-Profit Leaders (NPLs) assess the trustworthiness of government. We provide emergent themes which should aid theory development and practice in the area of political public relations by showing: (1) the value NPLs place on ‘soft’ trust qualities in trust assessments of government, namely benevolence; (2) the importance NPLs place on communicative acts which model trust (e.g. dialogue, compromise, mediation); and (3) the destructive role of divisive political elite discourse within a defective political system, amplified via the media, in NPLs’ distrust of government. The study thereby emphasises the crucial and constitutive role trust perceptions play in (in)effective political public relations, arguing that ‘trust’ must be defined by the perceiver and critically unpacked if public relations research is to fully appreciate its function. We propose that the nature of Northern Ireland’s post-conflict divided society, and political discourse in specific, makes certain trust antecedents most desirable to cross-community stakeholders. The findings contribute to further refining the concept of trust in public relations and they may also be instructive for other contexts.

scholarly journals The Power of the Media on Peace and Reconciliation Processes: Representing Former Enemy Groups as Moral versus Immoral Matters

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 183449092110025
Author(s):  
Ana Janković ◽  
Sabina Čehajić-Clancy
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Moral Exemplars ◽  
Moral Exemplar ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Behavioral Tendencies ◽  
The Media ◽  
Group Target ◽  
Peace And Reconciliation ◽  
Intergroup Behavior

The efforts of peace-building and reconciliation between historical enemies are faced with many structural and psychological obstacles. Scholars have identified mechanisms that can induce improvements in psychological aspects of intergroup relations, such as intergroup contact. However, establishing direct contact with everyone is impossible. Therefore, the mass media represents an important source through which groups learn about each other. Numerous studies have shown that stereotypical and often negative portrayals of specific social groups through the media produce or reinforce negative intergroup outcomes. In this research, the authors report results from an experimental study conducted in a post-conflict society of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( N = 119). It examined the effects of stereotypical and counter-stereotypical representations of former enemy groups (Bosniaks) through the media on intergroup behavior (reported by Bosnian Serbs). More specifically, in this research the authors explored the effects of representing out-group individuals as immoral (the stereotypical condition) and moral (the counter-stereotypical condition) on specific behavioral tendencies toward the historical enemy group. The results indicate that exposure to primarily moral information about the out-group target facilitated important positive intergroup outcomes. This study extends the literature and research on moral exemplars by demonstrating the effects on relevant intergroup outcomes whilst utilizing current (vs. historical) moral exemplar stories.

scholarly journals Israel-Palestine Impasse: the Unidentified Panaceas

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-64
Author(s):  
Acheoah Ofeh Augustine
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
State Solution ◽  
International Debate ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The People ◽  
Viable Solution ◽  
The Media ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Scholarly Contribution

This paper attempts a scholarly contribution to international debate on the diplomatic impasse over Jerusalem in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israel-Palestinian conflict has been one of the most intractable conflicts in the last two centuries that had defied all diplomatic entreaties. This paper chronicles in perspectives, the historical, anthropological, ethno-religious and diplomatic roots of the conflict; highlights the past and present proposed frameworks recommended for resolving the conflict, as well as the current two-state solution advanced and sanctioned by the United Nations. The paper submits that the internationally proposed “two-state solution” (first proposed under S/RES/1397 of 7 October 2000) which envisaged the creation of an Arab and a Jewish states side by side remains a diplomatic utopia and in alternative, recommends a symmetrical federal union, the potential Federal Union of Israel and Palestine with Jerusalem as its neutral Federal Capital Territory (FCT) remains the most viable solution to the conflict. A federal union that will grant through a national legislation, rights of equal access to all religious faith, ethno-nationalist entities and the people that make up the citizenry of the new state. As a post-conflict measure and peace consolidation initiative, the United Nations should champion a holistic-regional campaign in the Middle East against religious exclusivism through inter-faith dialogues. To this end, all faith-based organizations, humanitarian organization, the media, NGOs, INGO, regional organizations and stake holders should be co-opted into the campaign to “save next generation from the carnage of religious exclusivism”. The paper submits that on Israel-Palestine, there is no religious solution, for religion remains one of the central dilemmas in the conflict, rather, there is a viable political solution (a federal solution) which will reconcile the political, ethno-religious and territorial roots of the conflict.

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