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Fighting Misinformation Helps Social Cohesion and Early Recovery in Syria

Amsterdam: Free Press Unlimited (2024), 7 pp.

"By preserving independence, Syrian media is trusted to promote dialogue, providing a platform for diverse voices and fosters a culture of critical thinking and public debate, the media acts as a catalyst for inclusive recovery and sustainable development. It lays the groundwork for a resilient, dem ... more

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Impact Analysis of UNDP Lebanon Media and Peacebuilding Activities (2020-2022)

Beirut: Triangle Consulting; UNDP (2023), 87 pp.

"The UNDP “Peace Building in Lebanon” project has been working since 2007 on enhancing mutual understanding and social cohesion by addressing the root causes of conflict in Lebanon. The project’s third phase (2014-2022) built on the previous two phases and aimed to address new challenges to c ... ivil peace and peacebuilding in the country. In addition to the Syrian crisis, Lebanon is currently facing a severe socio-political, economic and fiscal crisis. The focus of this evaluation is the second output of the UNDP Peace Building in Lebanon project – the media component – which aimed to empower media to promote balanced and conflict-sensitive media coverage. This project component received funding from KFW and UKAID. Key project activities included countering fake news at national and local levels through a) capacity building and partnerships with media practitioners and b) training on hate speech and fake news for youth and their subsequent local awareness campaigns. The project activities also included providing positive media spaces and promoting rational discourse through a news supplement and its subsequent online platform, Salam wa Kalam. The report covers the projects’ duration from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2022. This evaluation relied on several data inputs, comprised of quantitative and qualitative data, analysis, and triangulation. The purpose of this final evaluation, commissioned by UNDP, is twofold. Firstly, assess the project’s performance and results according to the OECD-DAC criteria: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability, cross-cutting and its overall contribution to the UN strategic plan outcome 3.1: “Lebanon has institutionalized mechanisms to promote peace and prevent, mitigate, and manage conflict at national, municipal and community levels”. Secondly, ensure accountability, as well as identify and analyse findings and results to enable the incorporation of lessons learned and prepare recommendations that can be useful for the design of similar projects in the future and for organisational learning. In conclusion, UNDP’s project theory of change was relevant to Lebanon’s need to address the impact of fake news and hate speech on social cohesion. The media component aimed to improve intra-community relationships, including between Syrian refugees and host communities, in line with SDGs and LCRP goals. Lessons learned throughout the project were systematically documented to ensure effective and efficient management. The project adjusted its work plan to adapt to the changing context in Lebanon, such as COVID-19 and the fuel crisis. However, there was a lack of baseline data and defined metrics to measure and assess the project’s impact, especially on communities targeted by local awareness campaigns." (Executive summary) more

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Media Reform Amid Political Upheaval: Lessons from Burma, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tunisia, and Ukraine
Deep Insights

Tarik Jusic, Heather Gilberds

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2022), 36 pp.

"This study points to several recommendations for how international donors can improve support for media sector reform in countries at critical political junctures, and how they can build upon and strengthen approaches that have been effective in the past. Donor support is more likely to be effectiv ... more

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Influencing factors of ‘local’ conflict journalism and implications for media development: A critical appraisal

Fabíola Ortiz dos Santos, Viviane Schönbächler

Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies, volume 11, issue 2 (2022), pp. 189-209

"When conflicts emerge the media often become, intended or not, a key actor. It is through media that every party within a conflict attempts to convey its own narrative, contributing to a complex reality that affects journalists’ work in many different ways. This article aims to reflect on Bläsi� ... more

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Media Reform During Ethiopia’s Political Transition

Henok Semaegzer Fente

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2022), 25 pp.

"The media reform process in Ethiopia’s political transition has made significant improvements to the policy, legal, and regulatory frameworks. If institutionalized and implemented with robust stakeholder engagement, the reform could help build a sustainable, vibrant, independent, and viable media ... more

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Media Reform During Ethiopia’s Political Transition

Henok Semaegzer Fente

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2022), 8 pp.

"For most of its modern history, the news media in Ethiopia have been a tool for government control. But 2018 brought a wave of optimism to Africa’s second most populous nation. Anti-government protests forced the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) to undertake majo ... more

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Sudan’s Brief, Fragile Reform Window (2019–2021)

Mary Myers, Lina Yassin

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2022), 32 pp.

"We find that there is a will for reform from the civilian part of the government, the international community, independent media professionals, and a handful of Sudanese CSOs. However, pushing for a free media is a low priority for most of the population, who have more urgent survival and security ... more

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Palestinian Media Needs Assessment in the Context of the 2021 Jerusalem Uprising and the Gaza War

Metn: Samir Kassir Foundation (2021), 11 pp.

"While major airstrikes destroyed the office of some international media organizations such as that of Al Jazeera, local media organizations have been severely impacted. Unlike their international counterparts, local journalists do not have privileged access to protection provided by external entiti ... more

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Information Interventions and Social Media

Giovanni De Gregorio, Nicole Stremlau

Internet Policy Review, volume 10, issue 2 (2021), 25 pp.

"[...] While mass media, including TV or radio, have long been recognised as a key actor in the escalation of violent conflicts, the scale of dissemination and the degree of accountability of digital actors involved is different. Although the doctrine of information intervention initially evolved to ... more

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Peace Journalism: A Tool Within Media Development?

Fabíola Ortiz dos Santos

Forum Medien und Entwicklung (fome); MEDAS21 (2021), 27 pp.

"The role that the news media play in wartime has been an important topic in journalism scholarship. Peace journalism has become a popular concept in the study of the media’s role in conflicts in the early 21st century. This literature review seeks to determine whether peace journalism can be cons ... more

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The Role of the Media in Peacebuilding in Yemen

Fatima Saleh, Scott Preston, Mareike Transfeld

Bonn: Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient (CARPO) (2020), 15 pp.

"The increased political capture of the Yemeni media since 2014 has reinforced diverging political discourses and has contributed to polarization across society and to political fragmentation. Content of newspapers, television and online platforms has further eroded journalistic standards through th ... more

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The Role of the Media in Fostering a Culture of Critical Engagement in the Context of Mass Atrocities: Examples from Rwanda, Colombia and South Sudan

Mark Frohardt, Paula Orlando

In: Media and Mass Atrocity: The Rwanda Genocide and Beyond

Allan Thompson (ed.)

Waterloo, Ontario: Centre for International Governance Innovation (2019), pp. 205-234

"A brief recap of the examples discussed here suggests, among other things, the following considerations: When information circulation is limited due to censorship or security concerns, it may be necessary to restrict information to what is essential for survival. In the case of BBTT in South Sudan, ... humanitarian information is produced and transmitted by residents of the UN protected sites, in local languages and for local residents only; Likewise, in post-genocide Rwanda, where broadcasting news about atrocities would have been very challenging, the newsreel project provided information and space for discussion for different groups, while creating a conversation that extended beyond each screening and location; BBTT and the newsreels project also demonstrate that closed environments may be the best option to provide information safely and allow for open discussions among individuals affected by violence. By employing the use of listening and discussion groups, the program furthers its goal of engaging residents and extending their participation in the local form of public sphere. These controlled environments are particularly important to encourage the participation of victims, women and other marginalized groups in dialogue; Training and engaging citizens to gather, curate and disseminate content, as BBTT does with community correspondents, is an effective way to provide information that matters to people's lives and to foster a culture of critical engagement. These processes potentially help communities rebuild media structures once the political situation stabilizes; Media outlets that create avenues for interaction and feedback tend to be most successful in providing content that is relevant and engaging to audiences, as in the case of Sawa Shabab in South Sudan; Drama, games, storytelling and other forms of engagement with narratives provide opportunities for individuals to work together, regain social trust, learn about alternate forms of participation and reconstruct symbolic narratives, as demonstrated by the examples in Colombia; Recognition of the suffering of the victims as well as of their agency in resisting violence is also crucial in a post-atrocities context. This may come in the form of interactive media-making by citizens or in initiatives supported by media or research organizations such as the National Center for Historical Memory." (Pages 226-227) more

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Mauritania Violent Extremism & Media Landscape Assessment: Desk Study & Field Analysis

USAID; International Business and Technical Consultants (IBTCI) (2019), 89 pp.

"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 ... more

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Organizaciones de prensa y posconflicto en Colombia

Jonathan Bock

Bogotá: Universidad Colegio Mayor de Nuestra señora del Rosario, Trabajo de Grado (2018), 90 pp.

"Esta investigación tiene como objetivo determinar los alcances y las limitaciones que tienen las organizaciones de prensa colombianas al momento de preparar a los periodistas para cubrir y afrontar el proceso de posconflicto, derivado del Acuerdo Final para la Terminación del Conflicto y la Const ... more

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Media Interventions and the Syrian Crisis: Can We Do More?

Lina Srivastava, Vanessa Parra, Linda Raftree, Keefe Murren

Creative Impact and Experience Lab (CIEL); FilmAid (2018), 72 pp.

"[This publication] seeks to create a deeper understanding of the role of media interventions as strategic drivers of impact on the ongoing Syrian crisis. In exploring the impact of media interventions in this context, we conducted a landscape scan and a review of programs and approaches conducted b ... more

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Brought to You by Foreigners, Warlords, and Local Activists: TV and the Afghan Culture Wars

Wazhmah Osman

In: Modern Afghanistan: The Impact of 40 Years of War

M. Nazif Shahrani (ed.)

Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press (2018), pp. 149-176

"Without a doubt, the combined power of the public arena and broadcast media is a very efective social tool for collective action in Afghanistan. Yet there are serious limits to both the media’s self-advocacy and the public’s strong and unwavering support. Te media-related crimes and murders men ... tioned in this chapter are a few of the many. Yet no arrests are made and no one is prosecuted in most of these cases. Zoorawarah can continue to censor media makers with impunity and without fears of retribution. Broadcasting the incidents of violence and censorship against media personnel and the media writ large, as well as the subsequent protests and production of investigative and expository programs is indeed generative in creating dialogue and raising awareness about media rights and the important role of a free media in a society, but it is clearly not enough. Tus far, we have seen examples of two types of potential cultural imperialism. By aggressively promoting and offering their own media products, programs, and formats, at little or no cost, the argument can be made that foreign countries are impeding the development of Afghanistan’s own media industry, artistry, and media crafts. Additionally, we have seen examples of censorship, both from endogenous and exogenous forces, ranging from pressuring the government to ban programming or directly pressuring producers to do so. In extreme cases, we have seen an egregious third form of censorship becoming prevalent in Afghanistan. High-level media personnel and wealthy media owners who are ofen prominent public fgures, such as politicians, warlords, drug lords, religious leaders, and businessmen, hire body guards and live behind gated fortress mansions, while low-level television personalities and reporters are subjected to threats, physical attacks, and death for providing people with programming they want to watch and which gives them a platform to raise their voices. Hence, it is the mid- and low-level media professionals, not the owners of the television stations they work for nor the foreign governments that are the patrons of the stations, who bear the ultimate burden of media freedom and reform in Afghanistan. Caught between warring ideologies that range from Islamist to commercial to “developmentalist,” as brave as these Afghan media personalities and journalists are, and despite their high media a profile, their low socioeconomic status leaves them vulnerable to abuse and possible death." (Conclusion, page 168-169) more

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Media Interventions as Humanitarian Action

Shawn Powers

In: The Routledge Companion to Media and Humanitarian Action

Robin Andersen, Robin Purnaka L. de Silva (eds.)

London: Routledge (2017), pp. 416-427

"This chapter aims to introduce the concept of an information intervention as an example of humanitarian action. Typically associated negatively with government efforts to incite conflict and tension, two case studies are explored-Haiti and Syria-to better understand how state-led information interv ... more

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To Train a Watchdog: Media Development, Statebuilding, and Measurement in South Sudan

Kerstin Tomiak

Cardiff: Cardiff University, Doctoral Thesis (2017), ix, 291, 94 pp.

"[...] This thesis contributes to the emerging academic literature on media development and its role in statebuilding. It does so by investigating media development in the new state of South Sudan. Ethnographic observations, a social survey, and unstructured interviews have been applied during a fie ... more

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Communication and Conflict in Transitional Societies: Integrating Media and Communication in Development Cooperation

Ines Drefs, Barbara Thomass

Media, Conflict and Democratisation (MeCoDEM) (2017), 17 pp.

"Effective development cooperation that is sensitive to conflict contexts has to integrate media and communication into their overall strategy by taking into account the communicative needs of societies faced with democratization conflicts. In view of this policy problem, empirical evidence gathered ... more

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Radio Okapi Kindu: The Station That Helped Bring Peace to the Congo

Jennifer Bakody

Vancouver; Berkeley: Figure (2017), 304 pp.

"When Jennifer Bakody steps off the plane in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2004, she walks right into the hardest and most inspiring job an idealistic young journalist from Nova Scotia could ever imagine. Six years of war involving eight countries and several million deaths have just ended ... more

Media Reform Amid Political Upheaval: Lessons from Burma, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tunisia, and Ukraine Deep Insights

Media Reform Amid Political Upheaval: Lessons from Burma, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tunisia, and Ukraine
Deep Insights