"Presents case studies from 12 countries and lists 69 organisations working with media as conflict prevention and/or peacebuilding tool." (commbox)
"The framework provides some common indicators or consequences for the media in environments of pre-, overt and post-conflict. It presents a typology of interventions potentially appropriate to the media conditions that exist in those stages of conflict, or in others. It provides indicators for asse
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ssing those interventions. And the framework draws operational lessons from media-related programming and includes a matrix of exceptional examples of media peacebuilding initiatives." (Introduction)
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"In order to get a sound base for its future decisions on the role of media for peacebuilding, the Political Department IV of the Swiss Foreign Ministry has asked the swisspeace Center for Peacebuilding (KOFF) to initiate a process for compiling the current knowledge, existing experiences, and futur
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e challenges in this field. This should support the decision process in the Ministry on how media assistance could play a major role in their endeavor to contribute to peacebuilding efforts. The first step in this process was to commission a study on the state of the art in the field of media and peacebuilding. The second step was to convene a workshop, in which the first draft of the study was presented and discussed by experts and representatives of Swissbased media NGOs. In this workshop the media NGOs were also given the opportunity to present their view of the role and strategic position of media in peacebuilding and formulate the challenges they see for media projects in peacebuilding. The workshop participants also formulated common recommendations and open questions. This report compiles all the workshop’s input and presentations, and it summarizes its recommendations. In combination with the study “Media and peacebuilding: Concepts, actors, challenges” it hopefully contributes to the international debate on the role of the media and supports the ongoing process of reviewing their contribution to peacebuilding efforts." (Introduction, page 1)
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"Kurze Darstellung und "lessons learned" von 7 Fallbeispielen, v.a. Radiosendern. Der Autor stellt u.a. fest: "Medienprojekte werden von westlichen NGOs erst dann gestartet, wenn ein gewaltsamer Konflikt vorbei ist. Medienprojekte mit ausgesprochenem Präventionscharakter sind nahezu unbekannt, auch
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wenn sie dringend nötig wären" (Seite 39). Er empfiehlt u.a. eine "Revitalisierung" der früheren GTZ-Medienarbeit, denn diese stelle eine "gelungene und international renommierte Mischung aus professioneller Beratung bei der Institutionalisierung von demokratischen Mediensystemen und Sozialarbeit mittels Medien" (Seite 47) dar." (commbox)
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"This is an important and brave book. It is important because it is fresh, analytical and identifies the grave shortcomings in the handling of information and the media by the UN in conflicts and emergencies. It is brave because it is written by an insider who knows the deficiencies and wants organi
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sations like the UN to learn the lessons. Peacekeeping and Public Information neatly treads a fine line. It is restrained when perhaps direct accusations could be levelled. But that restraint is its value, because Ingrid Lehmann is identifying shortcomings, not apportioning blame. The failings of procedures - and the need to rebuild them - matter more than the failures of personalities, which undoubtedly there have been in UN Operations. Not just the UN can learn from this book. Also humanitarian organisations, the media, the military, diplomats - and most significantly the corporate world." (Nik Gowing, News Anchor and Analyst on Information in Conflict and Emergencies)
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"This book shows how to predict wars. More specifically, it tells us how to anticipate in a timely fashion the scope and extent of interstate conflict. By focusing on how all governments-democratic or not-seek to secure public support before undertaking risky moves such as starting a war, Getting to
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War provides a methodology for identifying a regime's intention to launch a conflict well in advance of the actual initiation. The goal here is the identification of leading indicators of war. Getting to War develops such a leading political indicator by a systematic examination of the ways in which governments influence domestic and international information flows. Regardless of the relative openness of the media system in question, we can accurately gauge the underlying intentions of those governments by a systematic analysis of opinion-leading articles in the mass media. This analysis allows us to predict both the likelihood of conflict and what form of conflict-military or diplomatic/economic-will occur. Theoretically, this book builds on a forty-year-old insight by Karl Deutsch-that all governments seek to mobilize public opinion through mass media and that careful analysis of such domestic media activity could provide an "early warning network" of international conflict. By showing how to tap the link between conflict initiation and public support, this book provides both a useful tool for understanding crisis behavior as well as new theoretical insights on how domestic politics help drive foreign policy." (Publisher description)
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"A selection of contributions to the 1985 UCBC congress in Belo Horizonte." (commbox)