"The article focuses on the use of metaphors during the 2007 pre- and post-election violence in Kenya that left at least 1400 people dead and more than 350,000 internally displaced. During and after the violence, vernacular radio stations, though not entirely responsible for the violence, were highl
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y chastised for constructing and disseminating narratives of hate, using embellished metaphors. This article acknowledges the presence of these metaphors and the ethnicized stereotypical humour they provided before the election. But it is the political tension that provided the context for the deployment of metaphors in a way that framed their meaning and potency of use. Whether these metaphors contributed to fanning ethnic passion cannot be quantitatively assessed. However, their potency was not in themselves, but in the meaning imbued in them; which was as fluid and transient as the context changed. Metaphors, therefore, became substitutes for past ethnic grievances. They served as a rallying cry and a call to arms, not because of the totality of what can be inferred from them, both positive and negative, but their signification of the aspects of difference. It is this difference, which was exploited during the election violence, not because of the metaphors but in spite of them. With the background of the political tension that suffocated the country, metaphors became materials to propagate ethnic identities and a basis for ethnic nomenclature." (Abstract)
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"Aus einer Forschungsperspektive wird die Rolle der Medien bei der Kriegs- und Krisenberichterstattung für Kinder beleuchtet. Es werden sowohl Aspekte der Rezeption und Produktion von Medientexten durch Kinder als auch die Sicht und Vorgehensweisen von ProduzentInnen von Kindernachrichten zusammeng
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etragen." (Zusammenfassung)
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"This interdisciplinary article weaves together journalistic practice with psychological testing to explore whether ideas about the framing of news to contribute to peace actually make any difference to consumers, both cognitively and emotionally. Hence, the first half considers the historical backg
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round in the Philippines that has shaped how news producers and consumers make meaning. Rather than running a laboratory-based study, researchers worked in the field, in the TV newsroom of Davao-based ABS-CBN, utilizing material already broadcast. This material could be defined as “war journalism,” thus enabling it to be reframed as “peace journalism." (Introduction)
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"OCHA uses communications to create awareness among target audiences (inside and outside the organization) about humanitarian emergencies, including natural disasters and complex emergencies, as well as their impact on vulnerable people. OCHA Communications Officers are charged with the task of brin
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ging humanitarian priorities to the world’s attention, seeking to create an operating environment that averts, or alleviates, human suffering and promotes the well being and protection of individuals and communities affected by or at risk of natural or environmental disasters or conflict [...] This handbook presents guidance on communications and provides specific information on Communications Officers’ roles and responsibilities. It also includes a section on engaging with the media, comprising rules and practical tips for OCHA media relations." (Page 1)
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"Irmgard Wetzstein untersucht die Möglichkeiten konstruktiver Konfliktbearbeitung in der qualitätsjournalistischen Auslandsberichterstattung. Sie grenzt diese zur friedensjournalistischen Idee ab, wobei systemische bzw. konstruktivistische Überlegungen im Vordergrund stehen. Die Kriegs-, Krisen-
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und Konfliktberichterstattung, der Auslandsjournalismus, seine Wirkpotenziale und Wechselbeziehungen zwischen dem System Journalismus und politischen EntscheidungsträgerInnen werden anhand des Konzepts der öffentlichen Diplomatie erläutert. Aus konflikttheoretischer Perspektive führt die Autorin eine Inhaltsanalyse unterschiedlicher Phasen des israelisch-palästinensischen Konflikts sowie der Unabhängigkeitserklärung des Kosovo in vier Printmedien durch. Sie gibt damit einen Einblick in die journalistische Praxis im Umgang mit Konfliktereignissen, die für die Öffentlichkeit nicht direkt erfahrbar sind." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"This paper attempts to show the many challenges faced by the media while covering 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 ec
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onomically 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." (Abstract)
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"Two major conclusions can be drawn on the basis of our case study. First, our analysis confirms that war reporting is characterized by a confluence of nationalist and sexist discourse. This discursive universe restricts the lives of women to a rather limited set of roles tied to the private domain
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– caring mothers, loving wives, dutiful daughters and sisters – and expects them to reproduce the nation both biologically and culturally. Indeed, the television coverage of the military conflict between the Yugoslav People’s Army and the Slovenian Territorial Defence in 1991 was almost devoid of female actors, let alone women who would appear in professional, public capacity. Out of all news reports dedicated to the conflict over the course of 20 days, women appear as participants in fewer than 5 percent of them and, of these, the vast majority are identified as wives and mothers, whose main concerns are achieving biological reproduction and protection of their families and their nation." (Conclusion, page 1057)
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"A radio station for Somalis, by Somalis and about Somalis went on air on 1 March 2010. Radio Bar-Kulan ('meeting place' in Somali) uses FM, short wave, satellite and the internet to ensure that access is available to all who want it. The history of the station has its roots in peacekeeping. The suc
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cess of another radio service [Radio Okapi in DRC] helped convince the people with money that perhaps Somalia needed similar treatment. Bar-Kulan is still very much a work in progress. It was born out of need and developed through compromise. I am a director of the implementing agency for Bar-Kulan and I cannot overemphasize the importance of radio in a society that is in conflict and is overwhelmingly oral." (Introduction)
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"The South Lebanon conflict saw two decades of sustained resistance by the Lebanese to the Israeli occupation. The Lebanese media’s role in achieving liberation over this period is significant, through campaigns conducted to unify the Lebanese people against their foreign occupier and in support o
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f the Lebanese resistance in South Lebanon. This book investigates the culture and performance of Lebanese journalism in this setting. It is a story about journalism told by a journalist who is also using tools of scholarship and research to narrate her story and the story of her fellow journalists. Zahera Harb is also presenting here an alternative interpretation of propaganda under conditions of foreign occupation and the struggle against that occupation. She identifies the characteristics of ‘liberation propaganda’ through the coverage and experience of the two Lebanese TV stations Tele Liban and Al Manar within the historical, cultural, organisational and religious contexts in which they operated, and how these elements shaped their professional practice and their news values." (Publisher description)
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"Vietnam gilt als der letzte Krieg, aus dem frei und unbehindert berichtet werden konnte, und in dem sich Journalisten und Militärs gleichberechtigt gegenüber standen. Diese Sicht wurde zwar von der Forschung weitgehend widerlegt, zumeist jedoch bezogen auf die Spätphase des Krieges sowie speziel
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l auf das Medium Fernsehen. Dessen ungeachtet genießen die Reporter der »Vietnam-Generation« weiterhin hohes Ansehen. Die Vorstellung, sie hätten den Grundstein für einen beispiellosen Triumph des Journalismus gelegt, fußt wesentlich auf generationellen Selbstzuschreibungen der Berichterstatter: »It started in Vietnam and ended in Watergate«, sagte David Halberstam, und sah sich und seine Kollegen als »front men for a whole generation«. Der Vietnam-Mythos von einer kritischen und einflussreichen Berichterstattung ist bis heute - scheinbar losgelöst von wissenschaftlichen Forschungen - sowohl in das Rollenverständnis von Journalisten wie in jenes von Politikern und Militärs eingeschrieben. Während Politiker und Militärs »Vietnam« instrumentalisieren, um Medien zu disziplinieren, ziehen Journalisten daraus ihr professionelles Selbstvertrauen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"The anti-Taliban discourse during the Swat military operation, as mediated by the Pakistani state in its propaganda campaign, was aimed at maligning the Taliban militants in order to build support and legitimacy for the military offensive. The dominant trends in the analysis of state’s propaganda
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narratives in Pakistan’s two mainstream newspapers reveal that the main ideological discourse (Islam and national security) of the state remained unchanged during the conflict. In fact, the state tried to build its anti-Taliban narrative on the same ideological discourse. Since the meta-narrative of the state did not undergo any transformation, the post-9/11 anti-terrorism narrative of the state remains a superficial discourse. The discourse analysis of Pakistani state’s anti-Taliban narratives reveals this temporality and superficiality. The state, through its propaganda campaign, portrayed the Taliban as evil, as anti-state actors, who needed to be eliminated in the interests of the country. However, the state ideology supports a pro-Taliban narrative. The only conflict is operational and temporary. Thus, the state propaganda is not directed towards all Taliban, and it is event-specific and time-specific. The state has not abandoned the Islamic ideology and its so-called strategic discourse. The Islamic ideology and the national security discourse, on the basis of which Pakistan supported the Taliban in the 90s, suit more a pro-Taliban discourse. That is why the state’s anti-Taliban propaganda kept clashing with the ideology of the state." (Conclusion, page 23)
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"On its issue of March 1, 2010, Time magazine reported that Sheik Fuad Mohamed Shangole, a leader of an Islamist group known as al-Shabaab (the Youth), which is fighting for control of the Horn of Africa nation of Somalia, made a public declaration of allegiance to Osama bin Laden. The purpose of th
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at report, entitled "Somalia: How it became Terror's New Home," is exactly what the title suggests-to portray how the fragmented Horn of Africa nation is fast becoming a host to terrorists and a major threat to the region and the rest of the world. As evidence, the article quotes a Western soldier in Somalia saying, "There's no longer a serious risk that southern Somalia could become a jihadi operational deployment facility. It already is." It is interesting how a closer look of the article reveals no local Somali sources are implied or quoted in any of the commentaries given. To be precise, three sources are indicated, identified as "a Western soldier working in Somalia," "an intelligence officer," and "Michael Ranneberger, U.S. ambassador to Kenya". This pattern in sourcing is not uncommon in international reporting, particularly in dealing with conflict/war stories (Lee & Maslog, 2005; Shinar, 2009)." (Introduction)
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