42. Name: Sana Majeed Title: The Role of Media in Conflict Resolution: A Comparative Study of News Reports by BBC World, CNN, Guardian and Al Jazeera for the Annapolis Summit (Nov 19 - Dec 9, 2007) Institution: University of Oslo Country: Norway, Date: 2008 Language: English Abstract: This study examines the role of the media in conflict resolution. It seeks to understand whether, in conflict coverage, global media use the guidelines of peace journalism or war journalism. To this end, the researcher chose to compare the coverage of four international news outlets: BBC World, CNN International, Guardian Unlimited and Al Jazeera. A sample of news items and reports published by these four outlets over a period of three weeks was collected and analyzed. The study derived theoretical support from concepts of power asymmetry and relied on Johan Galtung’s explanation of peace and war journalism. The research methodologies employed for this research were thematic and discourse analysis. The contrasting political leaning of the selected media gave the researcher many opportunities for data analysis to analyze the use of peace journalism versus war journalism. The study came to the conclusion that tenets of peace journalism, when used in news reports, help the media to play a positive role in the process of conflict resolution. Contrary, when the tenets of war journalism are used in the coverage, the media plays a negative role.
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