Media and Communication (ISSN: 2183-2439) 2016, Volume 4, Issue 1, Pages 63-79 Doi: 10.17645/mac.v4i1.371 Article Building Peace through Journalism in the Social/Alternate Media Rukhsana Aslam Pacific Media Centre, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland 1010, New Zealand; E-Mail: [email protected] Submitted: 10 June 2015 | Accepted: 27 October 2015 | Published: 18 February 2016 Abstract Social media networks are rapidly rewriting the traditional principles and protocols of war and conflict reporting. This paper endorses the argument that with the help of new media technologies, journalists can enhance the peacebuilding efforts in societies and communities. Their writings in the alternate media can provide ‘compelling form of engage- ment’ between the audiences and the people affected in the areas of violent conflict. But, the paper further argues, this requires a broadening of the orthodox model of journalistic objectivity that has so far been in place. It examines the possibilities of new models in the light of the existing journalism paradigms as argued by scholars including Galtung and Ruge (1965), Lynch and McGoldrick (2005), Shinar (2007), Hackett (2011) and Shaw (2011). It concludes on the need to have a model that is ‘a more natural fit’ for the 21st century by giving journalists the ‘flexibility’ to enable people to make their own judgments as to where the truth lies; and to open up the possibilities for dialogue and engagement in conflict resolution. Keywords alternate media; challenger paradigm; conflict resolution; new journalism models; peacebuilding; peace journalism; social media Issue This article is part of the issue “Peacebuilding in the Age of New Media”, edited by Vladimir Bratic (Hollins University, USA). © 2016 by the author; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribu- tion 4.0 International License (CC BY). 1. Introduction and mass-self communication’ is now seen as a direct alternative to ‘journalism’s traditional role or mission, New media, social media and alternate media are the its public responsibilities’ (Allan, 2007). According to terms used intermittently to explain the technological AOL News editor in chief, Lewis D’Vorkin, (as cited by changes that have revolutionised the information Allan, 2007): ‘the world is turning to the fastest grow- gathering, news making and its distribution across the ing news team—citizen journalists—to get a human boundaries. Because of their increased overlapping of perspective through the eyes of those who lived or ex- the content and functions, these platforms are fast be- perienced the news as it unfolds’. coming an alternate platform for distributing news and Alia goes to the extent of calling blogging ‘the new information (Hackett, 2011; Keeble, 2010; Matheson & journalism, able to cross geographic, cultural and polit- Allan 2010; Newman, 2011; van Dijck & Poell, 2013). ical borders and help build community, transcending Not only is the online daily coverage of news made the limits imposed by attitudes, policies, and govern- available by almost all major media organisations, ments of the regions and countries where they reside’ newspapers and televisions channels, they also have (Alia, 2010, p. 136). Moreover, ‘Twitter users are be- Twitter feeds and Facebook pages (Newman, 2011). ginning to find their way into the start-system of mass Smaller independent media organisations use it as a media alongside media celebrities’ whereby journalists major source to publish news, and journalists have are treating tweets from celebrities or politicians as their blogs, twitters and Facebook accounts to express ‘quotes’ (Lesage & Hackett, 2013, p. 7). The result is their opinion and views. The rise of ‘citizen journalism that these platforms ‘are increasingly accepted as legit- Media and Communication, 2016, Volume 4, Issue 1, Pages 63-79 63 imate standards to measure and mark people and ide- ‘also prone to inaccuracy, with key “facts” lacking ver- as; these rankings are then amplified through mass ification or corroboration’ (p. 187) as in the cases of media and in turn reinforced by users through social Mumbai and Greece, tweeting had echoes of ‘rumour buttons such as following and liking’ (p. 7). and prejudice’. Yet, the authors also point out that in Social media is also a major source for the whistle- situations like Sri Lanka and Gaza, ‘social networks fill blowers, e.g. the WikiLeaks, which in many instances silences created by censorship and suppression’ (p. has attracted the media’s attention world over. Pri- 187). In their opinion, the fact that social networks vately uploaded videos on media outlets such as are being used to ‘make connections across diaspo- YouTube have many-a-times attracted mainstream ras, to mobilise support and to build complex global media’s attention. According to Matheson and Allan spaces outside those established by news organisa- (2010), the citizen dispatches relayed in these spaces tions and states[,] open up new distinctive forms of ‘reveal their potential to narrow the distance that oth- communication which journalism cannot afford to ig- erwise allows distant publics to ignore their plight’ (p. nore’ (p. 187). 188). Even the indigenous media in countries such as Newman (2011) in his report Mainstream Media Canada, Japan, USA, Australia and Greenland, has and the Distribution of News in the Age of Social Dis- found audiences across the globe (Alia, 2010). This sig- covery gave three case studies to demonstrate how so- nifies the cross-over roles of the mainstream, social and cial media platforms are changing the production, dis- new media especially in cases where the stories have tribution and discovery of news. One of them is the been overlooked or avoided by the mainstream media. news of the death of Osama Bin Laden when the Ameri- Hence, the terms ‘social media’, ‘new media’ and ‘al- can forces raided his house in Abbottabad in Pakistan in ternate media’ are broadly referred to in the paper as May 2011. The first tweet was posted by Shoaib Akhtar, social media platforms and networks, and are treated a Pakistani IT consultant on a holiday in the mountain- as a given social reality or environment in which the ous city of Abbottabad and feeling annoyed at the sound journalists have to operate in order to write and dis- of the hovering helicopter in the area at 1am Pakistan seminate news on conflict, without going into their local time. By the time Akhtar realised what was going ideologies, complexities, politics or dynamics. on, he had become ‘the guy who liveblogged the Osama This article focusses more on looking at the possibil- raid without knowing it’ (Newman, 2011, p. 30): ities available for the journalists to play a more positive role in conflict situations and help build peace in socie- By that time he’d gathered almost 100,000 follow- ties in the new age media. It argues for the need to ers for his Twitterstream and not just a network have a ‘broader model of journalism’ to achieve that hub of information about events in Abbottabad but goal and discusses its implications for those who prac- a story in his own right. He spent much of the few tice the profession in the light of existing alternate days talking to the world’s press and posting pic- models. It concludes that any journalism model that tures of them setting up their satellite positions can provide ‘a natural fit for the 21st century’ must near his home. (Newman, 2011, p. 30) have the flexibility and creativity to make full use of the technological advancements that characterise the age In Britain, records Newman, the social monitoring tool of new media. At the same time, there needs to be a Trendsmap showed that ‘BBC stories were consistently cohesive and ‘synergised media strategy’ between the the most shared on Twitter throughout the day, and journalists and other media professionals, researchers, BBC log files showed almost 400,000 referrals from Fa- academics, peace workers and communities if they are cebook and Twitter to the top stories about the event’ to make a positive social change. (p. 32). Back in the United States the story also emerged first through Twitter and went viral, records 2. Peace and Conflict Reporting in Social Media Newman. New York based company Social Flow Networks mapped how the story spread by analysing 15 million tweets. Within one minute, it reported, the first tweet Social media networks are ‘rapidly rewriting the prin- was resent eighty times and from there it went viral (p. ciples and protocols of war and conflict reporting’, ar- 31). Many people tweeted that they had first got the gue Matheson and Allan (2010, p. 187) in their study news on Twitter or Facebook, then checked it on News of four conflicts in the year 2008. The study consisted App on their mobile and then switched to the TV. of the social media responses to Mumbai terrorist at- Jeff Jarvis, American journalism professor, summed tacks in India; street protests in Greece; the final gov- up the change in the news distribution of Osama’s ernment’s push against the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka death in these words: and the Israeli assault on Gaza. They conclude that ‘collaborative approaches to news gathering offer The old definition of shared national experience was compelling forms of engagement and immediacy’. watching TV at the same time. This shared experi- Although it is acknowledged that such information is ence is happening with TV in the background. The In- Media and Communication, 2016, Volume 4, Issue 1, Pages 63-79 64 ternet is our connection machine and Twitter is the ters of what journalists could do,’ she says. But there new Times Square. (Cited in Newman, 2011, p. 32) are other ways ‘of being a journalist, of being faithful to what journalism is about, without having to take According to the special report of The Economist that model (of conflict resolution) on board,’ she says.