Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding in Africa

Conceptual and Empirical Considerations

Jacinta Maweu, Admire Mare, Jacinta Maweu, Admire Mare

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000361421
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Process
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book explores the role and place of popular, traditional and digital media platforms in the mediatization, representation and performance of various conflicts and peacebuilding interventions in the African context.

The role of the media in conflict is often depicted as either 'good' (as symbolized by peace journalism)or 'bad' (as exemplified by war journalism), but this book moves beyond this binary to highlight the 'in-between' role that the media often plays in times of conflict. The volume does not only focus on the relationship between mass media, conflict and peacebuilding processes but it broadens its scope by critically analysing the dynamic and emergent roles of popular and digital media platforms in a continent where the semi-literate and oral communities still rely heavily on popular communication platforms to get news and information. Whilst social media platforms have been hailed for their assumed democratic and digital dividends, this book does not only focus on these positive aspects but also shines a light on dark forms of participation which are fuelling racial, gender, ethnic, political and religious conflicts in highly polarized and stratified societies.

Highlighting the many ways in which traditional, digital and popular media can be used to both escalate conflicts and promote peacebuilding, this volume will be a useful resource for students, researchers and civil society groups interested in peace and conflict studies, journalism and media studies in different contexts within Africa.

1 Introduction. Changing the tide
Re-examining the interplay of media, conflict and peacebuilding in Africa

Jacinta Maweu and Admire Mare

This co-edited book volume brings together theoretical and empirical contributions from African scholars in the various disciplines within the field of media studies whose work demonstrates the centrality of the media in conflict and peacebuilding in Africa. Its uniqueness derives from the way in which it highlights the many ways through which traditional, digital and popular media can be used to escalate conflicts on the one hand and promote peacebuilding on the other in different contexts within Africa (Mare 2020b). The bulk of research on media and conflicts in Africa has focused on its destructive effects using notable case studies such as the 2007/2008 post-election violence in Kenya, the Sierra Leone civil war, the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria, the Gukurahundi massacre in Zimbabwe in the 80s and the 1994 Rwanda genocide. There is, however, a growing recognition of the crucial role the media can play in helping provoke conflict as well as promote peace and conflict resolution, hence the justification for this book, which interrogates how the media plays this intercalary role. Whilst most of the case studies contained in this volume focus on the negative role of media in conflict and peacebuilding, we are not oblivious of the fact that there is significant research (Bratic and Schirch 2007; Gilboa 2010; Laker 2019) on the positive role of the media in peacebuilding and conflict resolution across the globe. We also acknowledge that some media organizations play both the conflict escalation and peacebuilding roles concurrently. It is these subtle nuances that avoid the trap of being caught up in the dogma of dichotomies that this volume seeks to tease out using empirical case studies.

There are a number of reasons which explain this overemphasis on the negative role of the media in conflict and peacebuilding in Africa. The disproportionate focus on the negative aspects of conflict and peacebuilding interventions could be attributed to the fact that the media in Africa continues to use Western conventional journalistic standards and news values, which often denies it enough room for creativity and flexibility, thereby making it vulnerable to influence by social and political contexts that are usually not taken into consideration by journalists and editors. As such, the application of predominantly Western values to news coverage ends up alienating the audiences and leading to misrepresentation of conflict and peacebuilding efforts. Consequently, this approach privileges news values such as conflict, negativity and magnitude. As Maweu (2018, 2019) observes, the major impediment to a peace and human rights approach to journalism lies in the [African] media’s structural subordination to the interests of political and economic elites. Both public and private media in Africa are structured in such a way that their focus is on serving the interests of owners, advertisers and finally audiences. Because of this political-economic architecture, instead of being peacebuilders and conflict transformers, the media end up being partners in escalating conflict by taking the commercial sensational approach to news coverage. This approach is even more acute in this age of artificial intelligence, algorithms and ‘analytics-driven journalism’ (see Moyo, Mare, and Matsilele 2019) where the media are so preoccupied with chasing after clicks, views, engagement rates, time-spend and browsing speed at the expense of public interest journalism. The mainstream media is increasingly using clickbaiting (headlines designed to hook readers into clicking on a hyperlink) and sensationalism to mislead and misinform audiences about the ‘real’ content of their stories (Moyo et al. 2019). This book volume interrogates the role of the media within the context of this changing communication ecology punctuated by neo-liberal globalization, transformation of journalism and increasing calls for decolonization and deWesternization of journalism practice in the global South (Skjerdal 2012; Waisbord and Mellado 2014; Wasserman 2011).

Intrastate rather than interstate conflict is increasingly becoming a defining feature of modern day Africa, with the media often playing a key role (Puddephatt 2006). Most countries in Africa are witnessing increasing civil wars, terror-related conflicts, election-related conflicts as well as religious-related conflicts. However, the media’s impact on the escalation of conflict is more widely researched within the academy than the media’s impact on peacebuilding (Bratic 2006; Bratic and Schirch 2007). As Legatis (2015) observes, an examination of the analytical debate surrounding the interplay of media, conflict transformation and peacebuilding reveals that the academic understanding of this triad (and the documentation of practical experiences) is still as patchy as was the case over a decade ago. There is, therefore, need for more researches to highlight both the positive and negative roles that the media can play during times of conflict and in post-conflict peacebuilding efforts. This book attempts to fill this gap as it also looks into the ‘in-between’ role of the media where on the one hand it plays a negative role and on the other hand advances a positive one during times of conflict. Through practical experiences, the volume presents different case studies on the good and bad of the media in conflicts and peacebuilding.

Unlike previous studies on media and conflict in Africa that have focused on individual countries or regions (Frère 2011; Mbaine 2006; Ondine 2013; Tom 2017), this volume presents both conceptual and case studies from different countries (Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Sudan, among others) to illustrate the emerging trends in media studies on conflict and peacebuilding in Africa. The volume also interrogates the potential of digital media to escalate conflicts or promote peace, an emerging area that is still largely under-researched within the African context. The focus on digital media is very poignant at this historical juncture given the prominence of fake news, bots, hate speech and cyber-propaganda, which are not only eroding ethos of electoral democracies but also increasingly contributing to the weaponization of the internet and social media (see Woolley and Howard 2016). The strategic deployment of cyber-troops raises new questions about cyber-warfare and how digital media can be harnessed for conflict and peacebuilding efforts in Africa (Mare 2020a).

There is growing recognition that the media should be a building block of any comprehensive peacebuilding strategy (Himelfarb and Chabalowski 2008). This is because conflict prevention and peacebuilding programmes use a number of approaches, from facilitating dialogue and negotiations between conflicted groups to using peacekeeping forces to separate armed factions, and in all of these, the media can and does play an important role. Both traditional and digital media are viewed as crucial communication toolkits in the creation and promotion of positive peace (which consists of conditions where justice, equity and harmony can flourish). This volume provides a forum for both conceptual and empirical studies that illustrate the potential and actual power of the media to escalate and transform conflicts into peaceful processes in Africa. It provides contextually rooted discussions of the trends and practices of media and peacebuilding across Africa, thereby offering a comprehensive guide to researchers. To our knowledge, this will be the first book-length attempt to provide readers with a range of case studies, debates and analysis from academics conducting research on communication/media studies and its relationship to conflict and peacebuilding in Africa from both destructive and constructive perspectives.

Beyond the double-edged sword role of the media in conflict and peacebuilding in Africa

The media can either take an active part in the conflict, thereby escalating the conflict and related violence, or remain independent, balanced and out of the conflict, thereby contributing to its resolution and the alleviation of related violence (Adam 1997; Curtis 2000; Davidson 1993; Galtung 1998). It is for this reason that the media is often regarded as a double-edged sword (Howard 2003, 2005) within the context of conflict and peacebuilding. In situations of conflict, the media can be a frightful weapon of violence when it propagates messages of intolerance or hate speech that manipulates public sentiment (Keeble et al. 2010). But the media can also play a significant role in the de-escalation of conflict, strengthening of the civil society and demolition of stereotypes and prejudices that may cause conflict (Howard 2002, 2003). In situations of war and conflict, the media can frame the event as an invasion versus attack, can emphasize the victims versus invaders and can highlight a positive versus negative attitude towards the war. The media can also play a central role in the promotion of peace by emphasizing the benefits that peace can bring, they can raise the legitimacy of groups or leaders working for peace, and they can help transform images of the enemy (Wolfsfeld 2004). In this volume, there are several case studies that demonstrate that the media’s role in modern conflicts can take these two different and often opposed forms. There are chapters that demonstrate how the media can be used to promote peacebuilding in inter-religious, inter-ethnic and electoral conflicts on the one hand and escalate the same conflict on another in different contexts (see chapters by Chari, Maweu, Mare and Tsarwe, Sowa and Moyo).

For instance Tendai Chari in Chapter 14 looks at the phenomenon of diasporic media in the Zimbabwean context. He qualitatively analyses the discursive construction of conflict in selected English language Zimbabwean diaspora media using negotiations leading to Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unity (GNU) as a lens for this analysis. This chapter contends that, although the diaspora media accentuated conflict discourses at the expense of peacebuilding their role in the homeland is ambivalent. He posits that on the one hand, diaspora media are viewed as “peace-wreckers”, on account of their propensity to amplify conflicts rather than rapprochement to peace negotiations. On the other hand, they are perceived as “peace-makers” because of their efforts to channel “alternative voices and visualizing peaceful solutions”.

Retracing the civil war in Sierra Leone, which took place from 1991 to 2002, Francis Sowa in Chapter 12 interrogates what he calls the ‘actual role’ played by the traditional media in either contributing to the escalation of the conflict or contributing to peace and post-conflict transformation initiatives. Adopting the basic premise of the book, which is that a strong independent media contributes to the retention or creation of peace and stability in conflict-affected areas, Sowa draws on documentary analysis and interviews conducted with senior media practitioners in Sierra Leone to argue that media were central in terms of peace education, whether in the form of writing editorial, opinions pieces, and producing and broadcasting programmes. Radio drama programmes were also aired with the sole purpose of promoting peace education.

The media’s role in peacebuilding during times of conflict can also be compromised by the political and economic frameworks within which it operates. In their chapters, Mare and Tsarwe, Moyo and Muindi show how structural and individual factors contribute to media’s escalation of conflicts rather than nurturing an environment conducive for peace initiatives. Deploying Reese and Shoemaker’s (1998) hierarchy of influences model, Mare and Tsarwe in Chapter 11 argue that macro, meso and micro structural factors impact on the ways situated journalists and editors report on conflict and peacebuilding interventions in Zimbabwe. Similarly, in Chapter 8, Benjamin Muindi uses the same model to analyse how terrorism and counterterrorism structural laws have compromised journalistic and media freedom in Kenya. These studies demonstrate the point that journalists and editors are not free-floating agents in the conveyer belt of news production. Although journalists have the capacity to use their own human agency in the news production cycle, they are somewhat constrained and structured by newsroom pressures, routines and structures. In Chapter 7, Dumisani Moyo proposes a more liberal press and limited state-owned media in Africa coupled with journalistic training that considers contextual nuances and conceptual precision to obviate such situations. His main thesis is that there is need for a journalism that speaks ‘truth’ to power in the African context.

The media can either escalate a conflict by accentuating disagreements, foregrounding confrontations and lending air time to forceful voices or, conversely, reduce the conflict by shunning extremism, giving room for alternative voices and visualizing peaceful solutions. In their chapters, Silvester Ogata and Doreen Muyonga analyse how media framing of longstanding conflicts in Sudan and the Somalia-Kenya border maybe said to accentuate disagreements and foreground confrontations, thereby partly contributing to these conflicts. But it is in no doubt that the media can be effectively used to prevent the circulation and broadcasting of propaganda, inflammatory material, hate-media or damaging rumours which destroy communities and prevent the building of trust (Adam and Holguin 2003, Hackett 2006; Hawkins 2011; Hoffmann and Hawkins 2015). As Jacinta Maweu in Chapter 9 and Francis Sowa in Chapter 12 show, mainstream media especially radio can be effective tools to promote interfaith and interethnic dialogue and enhance mutual understanding. The media can also be used to bridge gaps and erase misconceptions, which are prevalent and major instigating factors during times of conflict as they promote respect and harmonious co-existence between warring communities. Ideally the media ought to provide a vital space in which different voices and views are aired and information from different sources is openly available for public scrutiny to minimize tensions and to expose the truth which in most cases will have been twisted in times of conflict (Youngblood 2016).

By focusing on the constructive potential of the media in peacebuilding and the actual contributions that the media and journalists have made, and are making to peacebuilding (Legatis 2015), as well as media’s destructive roles during such times, this volume will be invaluable in shifting the tide. Conflicts in Africa are at an all-time high, and the attention of the public, policy-makers and media is still predominantly drawn towards the conflict escalating roles of media as seen in various forms. By highlighting the constructive, destructive and in-between roles that the media can play in conflict situations, this volume counters this near exclusive predominant destructive media narrative presented in most texts on media and peacebuilding in Africa. Through the several case studies that depict the media’s positive role in peacebuilding, the volume av...