"This report assesses widespread claims that pan-Arab satellite news channels are responsible for inciting sectarian violence during the Arab uprisings. Based on an empirical study of how the most popular channels (Al-Jazeera Arabic and Al-Arabiya) and a competitive newcomer (Al-Mayadeen) have frame
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d seminal events involving violence between sects in Syria and Iraq, the report finds that while often geo-politically charged, some of these claims are valid. While abusive language and direct promotion of violence are rare in a mainstream context, incitement to sectarian violence has been invoked primarily through linguistic and thematic tropes that forge legitimacy claims and narratives of victimhood. The paper draws on these findings to make recommendations for UK policymaker engagement with the Arab media." (Abstract)
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"The world is flooded with news of how social media is being used to influence democracy in conflict-affected areas, for better or worse. Colombia is not an exception. The era of social media brings opportunities and challenges to a broad range of stakeholders in this country, to harness the power o
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f technological innovation to foster a more open and transparent democracy in the midst of conflict. This policy brief examines the positive and negative influence of social media in three cases: (i) the 2016 plebiscite about the endorsement of a peace agreement with the FARC-EP guerrilla; (ii) the presidential elections of 2018; and (iii) the threats and crimes against social leaders since the peace agreement was signed. Based on the cases analysed, the document draws recommendations for different actors at the local, national and international levels, to both minimise the harm and maximise the good of using social media in Colombian democratic spaces." (Abstract)
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"This research paper is designed to examine the problems being faced by the journalists in two of the newly merged tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Khyber District and Mohmand District). The researchers used survey method for data collection. A designed structured questionnaire from the respo
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ndents (110 journalists from both districts Khyber and Mohmand) working with different international, national and local print, electronic and online media organizations as a convenience sampling. The findings show that a majority of the tribal journalists had been feeling insecure due to possible threats to their lives mainly from the militants and the military. The study revealed relationship between security awareness and level of journalists’ experience and qualification. More experienced and qualified journalists were more aware of their security concerns as compared to less educated and less experienced journalists." (Abstract)
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"This chapter presents the findings of a research project undertaken with the objective of understanding the radio-listening habits of Rwandan rebels in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC). The intent was also to understand the impact and appreciation of an educational soap op
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era called 'Musekeweya', which dramatizes messages on conflict prevention and reconciliation. This radio theatre play is broadcast by Radio Rwanda, the Rwandan state broadcaster. In total, 101 ex-rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) were consulted during several weeks of fieldwork in 2009." The conclusion (page 607) states: "Although there is no clear evidence that radio or a radio soap such as 'Musekeweya' played a decisive role in the final decision of ex-rebels to return home, it is clear that the radio soap has been somehow at work in a dynamic of competing ideologies and mindsets. Scott Straus is convinced that, in the context of mass violence, ideology and ideas shape decision making in "subtle but profound ways." Ideology played a decisive role in the dynamics that led to genocide against Tutsi and remains important in understanding the post-genocide situation … Since the end of the genocide, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) is promoting a radically different interpretation of Rwandan history and aims to reconfigure the political and societal narrative. Central is the notion of "Rwandanicity," or "Rwandanness," which asserts that before the arrival of colonialism, Rwandans were one unified people. According to this narrative, the colonial powers divided what had been a harmonious and egalitarian society. This ultimately culminated in the 1994 mass slaughter of Tutsi. This narrative praises the activities of the RPF, stopping the genocide in 1994 and divisionism altogether, and warns for the persistence of this "genocide ideology." But there is a thin line between re-education and political indoctrination, also on this side of the Rwandan border. The attempt to change mindsets can be seen as a strategy to achieve hegemonic control." (Introduction, page 597)
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"How do peacebuilding organisations communicate about peace online and offline? Narrative competency must be a fundamental aspect of our work as peacebuilders in the modern age, as we confront the challenges posed by social media, divided on-line communities, growing political polarisation globally
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and more easily-ready manipulation tactics within public discourse. The term narrative is ubiquitous today and commonly used interchangeably with story. Indeed, storytelling is widely recognised now as an important skill within the social sector, a needed tool for social change that is woven into traditional conceptions of strategic communications, fundraising and awareness-raising on important societal issues. There is currently a lack of understanding within the peacebuilding field, however, of the concept of narrative fundamentally as a cognitive framework that resides at the level of our unconscious minds, which allows human beings to make meaning of the world. Several powerful philanthropies like Ford Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies and the Open Society Foundation have recognised this deficit of understanding and are investing in narrative change platforms and resources for social justice and equality. Narratives are clearly much more than a passing fad. Our current strategic communications practices are siloed; organisational-level storytelling is no longer enough to confront these evolving conflict dynamics. Instead, the field of peacebuilding must commit to a more profound understanding and engagement at the level of societal narratives (meta-narratives or dominant narratives) that get to the heart of underlying attitudes, beliefs and actions that affect a peacebuilding agenda. While much has been written about how activists can address narrative change, peacebuilders have a special calling to engage with narratives in a way that is self-reflective, curious, seeks complexity and constructs meaning with others." (Executive summary)
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"You will find information and advice on everything from how to source rumours and factcheck information, to how to share actionable and practical answers to address these rumours. Internews Rumour Tracking Methodology is designed to be flexible and responsive to local context – and you should be
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too. While there are minimum standards that every project should include in order to implement the Internews Rumour Tracking Methodology (see minimum standards, page 6), projects need to build on these standards based on local contexts." (Page 5)
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"Julia Ebner verfolgt hauptberuflich Extremisten. Undercover mischt sie sich unter Hacker, Terroristen, Trolle, Fundamentalisten und Verschwörer, sie kennt die Szenen von innen, von der Alt-Right-Bewegung bis zum Islamischen Staat, online wie offline. Ihr Buch macht Radikalisierung fassbar, es ist
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Erfahrungsbericht, Analyse, unmissverständlicher Weckruf. Als Extremismusforscherin stellen sich ihr folgende Fragen: Wie rekrutieren, wie mobilisieren Extremisten ihre Anhänger? Was ist ihre Vision der Zukunft? Mit welchen Mitteln wollen sie diese Vision erreichen? Um Antworten zu finden, schleust sich Julia Ebner ein in zwölf radikale Gruppierungen quer durch das ideologische Spektrum. Sozusagen von der anderen Seite beobachtet sie Planungen terroristischer Anschläge, Desinformationskampagnen, Einschüchterungsaktionen, Wahlmanipulationen. Sie erkennt, Radikalisierung folgt einem klaren Skript: Rekrutierung, Sozialisierung, Kommunikation, Mobilisierung, Angriff." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Du 21 au 23 novembre 2018, huit chargés de communication d’Afrique francophone du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge (CICR) dont le mandat est de venir en aide aux populations affectées par les conflits armés, se sont réunis à Dakar pour échanger leurs expériences d’utilisation de l
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a radio comme outil de communication humanitaire, apprendre à évaluer l’impact de leurs programmes avec l’aide d’Adrien Zerbini, formateur de la Fondation Hirondelle. Organisation suisse à but non-lucratif, la Fondation Hirondelle fournit de l’information à des populations confrontées à des crises, pour leur permettre d’agir dans leur vie quotidienne et citoyenne. En décembre 2017, le CICR et la Fondation Hirondelle ont signé un accord de partenariat (MOU) pour favoriser les collaborations entre leurs équipes sur le terrain. Cet atelier fut l’un des fruits de cet accord de partenariat. A son issue, nous voulons garder une trace écrite des bonnes pratiques en la matière et vous proposer deux parties simples, didactiques, dont le but est d’être facilement utilisables: les «dix règles d’or pour une bonne production radio» et le «choix de la bonne production radiophonique et son évaluation»." (Introduction)
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"This textbook offers an accessible introduction to the historical, technical, and strategic context of global cyber conflict. The second edition has been revised and updated throughout, with three new chapters. Cyber warfare involves issues of doctrine, strategy, policy, international relations (IR
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) and operational practice associated with computer network attack, computer network exploitation and computer network defense. However, it is conducted within complex sociopolitical settings alongside related forms of digital contestation. This book provides students with a comprehensive perspective on the technical, strategic and policy issues associated with cyber conflict, as well as an introduction to key state and non-state actors." (Publisher description)
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"The primary questions driving this assessment are: What are the principal drivers of extremism in Mauritania? What are the principal social fractures that have been, or could be, exploited by extremists? The table below displays the overall main drivers of VE in Mauritania, as well as the five subn
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ational assessment sites (Nouakchott, Nouadhibou, Trarza, Hodh el-Gharbi, and Assaba). Poor governance and relative deprivation are among the most pervasive push factors identified in this assessment, while ideology and social media are the main pull factors [...] The second main assessment question is: What is the role of the Mauritania media landscape within the context of VE? Section 4 addresses this question through a thorough assessment of the overall media landscape in Mauritania. We found that the Mauritanian media has the potential to be a key actor in efforts to counter VE in Mauritania. However, it needs a lot of capacity building and professionalization in order to be effective." (Pages 8-10)
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"In the months before Myanmar's national elections in November 2015, Khin Oo says she began to engage directly with Facebook users to dispel rumours and misinformation that, in her view, propagated hate and inflamed intercommunal tensions. She posted "right speech" and "right information" by comment
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ing on other users' comments and posts to correct misunderstandings and challenge errors and misinformation. Khin Oo is one of several Facebook commenters or social media activists I spoke with in 2015 and 2016 who identified themselves as working to counter hate speech. Some are Muslim, but some are not; in fact some are monks worried about protecting their religion. Many are youths and students, but some are older, in their 30s and 40s. They all, however, collectively feel the weight of the future of their country. They desperately want to take action against online hate speech and the spread of misinformation. These individuals, almost all of whom asked to remain unnamed, describe their work as "sharing" new points of view and "talking about different ideas". A review of some of the posts and comments they have distributed and collected, however, shows they are much more intentional and strategic about their actions." (Page 379)
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"The handbook begins with a more general focus on conflict and on the different contributions journalists can make if they adopt a conflict sensitive approach to reporting. Key ideas relating to conflict senstive reporting are spelt out in some detail in Part One and this provides a conceptual basis
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for the rest of the text. The remainder of the handbook focuses more specifically on how a conflict sensitive approach to reporting can enable journalists to make a constructive contribution when reporting on situations involving violent extremists and terrorists. Readers who are are primarily interested in these issues can skip Part One and begin their reading at the start of Part Two. That said, many of the ideas discussed in Part One, such as tips for understanding conflict, or interviewing people in conflict situations, would also inform the coverage of extremism and terrorism. One of the corner stones of conflict sensitive reporting is the assumption that the more journalists know about conflict, the better equipped they will be to report constructively on disputes, confrontations, insurgencies and wars. The handbook assumes the same thing when it comes to reporting on extremism and terrorism and consequently provides a detailed discussion of some relevant aspects relating to these manifestation of conflict in Part Two. Part Three looks specifically at things journalists can do when reporiting extremist activities in a community and how, by applying principles of fair, independent and transparent reporting, they can help to limit the harmful effects of these activities. Part Four deals specifically with contributions journalists can make when reporting on actual terrorist attacks, while Part Five, written by Jem Thomas, focuses specifically on violent extremism in the digital world. Part Six: Looking After Yourself, pays attention to question relating to journalists physical safety and psychological well being." (Page 6)
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"Der sogenannte Islamische Staat nutzt in seiner Kommunikationsstrategie vor allem eine Form von direkter Zielgruppenansprache über eigens produzierte Videos und Nachrichtenkanäle. Die Verwendung von massenmedialen Multiplikatoren ist zwar weiterhin ein wichtiger Bestandteil zur Verbreitung von An
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gst, die der Terrorismus evozieren will; allerdings eröffnet diese Möglichkeit der direkten Kommunikation eine völlig neue Ansprache der Rezipienten. Bei der Verbreitung über traditionelle Massenmedien muss seitens der Terroristen eine ausgleichende Berichterstattung in Kauf genommen werden – das klassische Medien-Framing. Dagegen können bei direkter Ansprache relevanter Publika strategische Kommunikator-Frames und Narrative gesetzt werden. Über die Wirkung von Propaganda wird nach wie vor debattiert. Daher stellt sich die Frage, ob diese Botschaften grundlegend anders auf Rezipienten wirken als Medienberichte, in denen ebenfalls ideologische Botschaften kommuniziert werden. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird in einem experimentellen Design die Wirkung terroristischer Kommunikationsinhalte auf die Emotionen der Rezipienten untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen unter anderem, dass strategische Kommunikator-Frames negative Emotionen verstärken können. Politisches Wissen und Themeninteresse können jedoch diese Reaktionen und damit die Hauptwirkungskomponente des Terrorismus – die Angst – reduzieren." (Abstract)
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"The book provides an historical and theoretical context to risk culture and the work of war correspondents, paying particular attention to the changing nature of technology, organisational structures and the role of witnessing. The conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria are examined to highlight
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how risk and the calculations of risk vary according to the type of conflict. The focus is on the relationship between propaganda, censorship, the sourcing of information and the challenges of reporting war in the digital world. The authors then move on to discuss the arguments around risk in relation to gender and war reporting and the coverage of death on the battlefield." (Back cover)
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"There is no doubt that technology has improved the ability to document war crimes and human rights abuses, even in otherwise inaccessible locations. The world now sees, often in close to real-time, atrocities that would have been lost to the world only a handful of years ago. But does knowing neces
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sarily translate into doing? Whether such access can be directly linked to changes in international policy-making processes remains undecided. Indeed, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that changes in the technical capacity to gather evidence have had negligible effect on states' willingness to intervene in mass atrocity events. Syria, for example, has been mapped, photographed and crowdsourced in detail for (as of this writing) seven years, yet the war there is expected to continue for years more. Reported war crimes have so far had no clear, unequivocal effect on policy. The use of chemical weapons by the Syrian military underscores the point." (Pages 569-570)
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"Las dificultades que afronta el proceso de cumplimiento del Acuerdo para la Terminación del Conflicto y la Construcción de una Paz Estable y Duradera, firmado en 2016 entre el Gobierno de Juan Manuel Santos y las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc-Ep); el fortalecimiento de diverso
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s grupos al margen de la ley (entre los que se deben mencionar a las disidencias de las Farc); la confluencia de diferentes tipos de violencia y criminalidad a lo largo y ancho del país; y la débil respuesta del Estado para enfrentar las diferentes problemáticas, han consolidado la idea de que la implementación de lo acordado es inviable. Frente a este momento crítico, las voces de quienes tienen aún esperanza no se han acallado. Y el periodismo, con un sentido de responsabilidad social, no puede dejarse llevar por la desesperanza. El papel de quienes aman este oficio debe ser encontrar las causas de la nueva situación, y hacer una veeduría –desde la fuente- a lo acordado, para poder contribuir a detectar la ruta para que lo logrado en el proceso de paz sea viable para Colombia. Este manual expone, precisamente, las rutas para hacer seguimiento a los dineros de la implementación del Acuerdo de Paz. En él, los lectores encontrarán la nueva arquitectura institucional para la paz, diseñada y manejada no solo por parte del Estado, sino por la comunidad internacional, que tanto ha trabajado para que la convivencia se abra paso en el país. Además, se diseñaron la metodología y las herramientas para el seguimiento a los dineros del posconflicto, en un capítulo que reúne lo mejor de las experiencias y los conocimientos de los periodistas investigadores que forman parte de Consejo de Redacción. Igualmente, se sientan las bases para la construcción de una agenda periodística sobre el seguimiento a la transición al posconflicto y, finalmente, se presentan dos investigaciones periodísticas sobre la implementación del Acuerdo de Paz, producto de un ejercicio de construcción de contenidos a partir de un taller en el que participaron doce reporteros de diferentes regiones del país, inspirado en la metodología y las herramientas del periodismo de investigación, con la intención de hacer una especie de primer balance sobre la marcha de la implementación." (Editorial, página 19-20)
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