Alera, Hadap, Palisoc (Group #1)

HANDOUTS FOR REPORTING BAJ 3-1D

MEDIAS ROLE IN THE CREATION OF A CULTURE OF PEACE

Introduction

Role of Media in various national problem

- Public perception sees media as a major factor in the course of public events, whether as a
help or hindrance, an ally or an enemy.
- Despite that, there is a little understanding of the media character, especially the news media
publics reaction to news and sensitivity of having a role to play instead of just simply
delivering the news.
- But still, medias presence is pervasive and its reach is extensive. It certainly has the
influence and impact to the public.

Models of News making

1. The Mirror Model
- Regards news as merely a reflection of the reality out there. The media simply tell it like it
is.
- This concept projects the journalist as a neutral and disinterested observer.
2. Media as conduit or channel of information or news material
- The media simply provide the means of disseminating the news.
- Neutral transmitter, indicating how media merely conduct the flow of events, programs,
and ideas generated by others. (Linsky, 1986)
3. Media act as a funnel regulating the flow of communication between policymakers and
others in political system (Schattsneider, 1975)
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Referring to the models, it retains the truth that media (reporters) depend on other sources or
the news (leads). Media do not invent the news.
In this context, the media cannot promote or make peace, without the actors leading them
towards those goals.

Media as policy actor

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On the contrary to that, there are more recent theories that project the media as an actor in
policymaking process. (Iyengar& Kinder, 1987) (Kingdon, 1984)
Different kinds of media effect
o Educate the public
o Facilitate the exchange of ideas among policy actors in/out of government
o Organize the issues and project scenarios to prime the ground for public acceptance
of certain policy options
(Hawthorne, 1994)

Alera, Hadap, Palisoc (Group #1)

HANDOUTS FOR REPORTING BAJ 3-1D

While reports and accounts may be merely reactive to what is happening out there, the
resulting publicity and resonance of journalism exerts influence over the policy agenda.

The criteria for news

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News selection involves the standards of newsworthiness, determining what is included in

the mirror reflection, in the funnel transmission, in the material that media channel carry out
to the public.
Most common news criteria:
o Timeliness
o Wide interest
o Out-of-the-ordinary/out-of-the-norm
o Conflict
News coverage is also cued by events and tied to specific and isolated occurrences, rather
than long-term processes.
Due to this, journalism often misses out on the signs of crisis or the context of controversy.
Examples:
o The famine gets reported but not the causes, not until the famine actually occurs.
o The floods are reported but not the deforestation and erosion which are the conditions
that causes.
o The simmering ferment leading to war may escape notice, precluding the declaration
of war.

Inevitably, the possibilities of peace fall out of the news. x

Peacemaking is a process that is difficult to track as events.
Bias is for bad news. It is in the character of the news that media choose stories of conflict,
confrontation, collapse in peace talks, and calamity.

How media can play a positive role in building a culture of peace?

o The media would need to re-orient their approach to news, and journalists need to reinvent a framework for journalism so that news about consensus, compromise,
conflict avoidance, and alternatives to war ad violence become newsworthy in the
eyes of the press as the news from the opposite providing new public
consciousness.
But of course, it isnt just the media who makes up the culture; it is just an aspect. There
should be collaboration with other culture to promote a culture of peace.

Information policy for peace

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Policymaking an orderly activity which proceeds according to chronological sequence,

from identifying the problem, formulating a solution, adopting a policy, implementing it and
then evaluating it (Borquez, 1993) (Linsky, 1986).
In open and democratic systems, policymaking is often less orderly.

Alera, Hadap, Palisoc (Group #1)

HANDOUTS FOR REPORTING BAJ 3-1D

The garbage-can model projects the fluidity of the process with various constituencies and
advocacy group exerting influence in a struggle of ideas and interests (Borquez, 1993).

Relationship between the press, political actors, and policymakers

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The press and the political actors/policymakers have no relationship other than adversarial
interaction, referring to prevailing mindset among journalistic communities in democratic
systems.
The Philippine news media have been quick to interpret any effort to engage them in a
partnership as an infringement on the independence and autonomy of the press.
You do your thing, we do ours usual media reaction to call for role-playing
Despite this, the journalists and public officials are mutually dependent on one another to
accomplish their tasks; the officials needing the media to broadcast to the public about their
work, and the media needing the government as their sources for news stories.

What the news hold

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The review of the media on the news can become an effective tool for policymaking, using
information as an instrument with which to shape policy or implement programs.
Government plays a dominant role in setting the agenda through the news.

The Coverage of the Peace Process

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Presents an aspect of governance that has a continuing reality apart from the visible events.
The promotion of peace is a comprehensive, complex and multi-faceted process but media
track the process only through events.
There is a journalistic bias for bad news and the out-of-norm; peace, however, is a
presumed condition
There are just few peace events.
The media need to work with sources to push peace-oriented news.
Center for Media Freedom & Responsibility conducted a six-month content analysis of the
coverage of the peace processin 1994:
o They examined reporting and commentary in 11 newspapers
o It focused on three themes identified in the Ramos administrations peace program: Peace
and Order; Peace Talks and Government Reforms.
o They saw that on all the three themes and probably in all aspects of peace process, the
media turn to government as their major source of news. Government is the major
initiator of activities.
o This suggests that government needs to refine their orientation toward the news to
establish information programs that can make media interested in peacemaking.

Alera, Hadap, Palisoc (Group #1)

HANDOUTS FOR REPORTING BAJ 3-1D

Less Visible Peace Advocates

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NGO peace advocates and other service deliverers provide a different perspective to ongoing
conflicts.
o Peace zones formation of peace groups engaged in the active quest for understanding
among communities
o Silsilah based in Zamboanga, takes the path of inter-religious dialogue in a
movement that brings together Muslims and Christians for mutual exchange about their
faiths and beliefs
o PAZ (Peace Advocates of Zamboanga) Catholic organization which is developing a
peace program by consolidating strong Muslim-Christian relations
Such groups need to be able to access their news to the media in the creation of peace-culture
Their activities are process oriented and media have difficulty framing such long-term programs
into news.
Peace advocates should begin building alliance-networks with media
Medias blind-spot: Citizen and NGO peace efforts receive so little attention as news
Failure of the media to publicize these activities indicate how deeply imbedded the news culture
is in the culture conflict.

The Alliance for Peace Communicators: A Media Experiment for Peace

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APC has remained only a name

For over a year, since late 1994, the APC, a group of journalists and government information
officers, had organized five seminar workshops to update journalists on the peace program of the
government, on NGO peace efforts, as well as to discuss their difficulties in covering the peace
process.
Workshops touched on the:
o Lack of capable and credible spokesperson on the peace process especially when it
involves the military and other peace-and-order situations
o Dilemma of mixing media advocacy for peace and the business of news
For most journalists, peace-reporting was strange ground
There is no peace beat. Working against a deadline, it is easier to count the casualties and the
dead bodies.

Peace Training for the Media

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There is a need for:

o Reading material that will familiarize journalists about the different communities of
Mindanao and the Cordilleras.
o Source books that will help lead journalists to other sources in the academe, in the NGOs,
and in less visible government agencies, whose experience can help them understand the

Alera, Hadap, Palisoc (Group #1)

HANDOUTS FOR REPORTING BAJ 3-1D

process that lies behind the event, the underlying terms that make conflict more
understandable.
o A level of competence which will ensure intelligent and accurate reporting to help reduce
the war-mongering sensationalism.
o Greater exposure to develop a new sensitivity among journalists, a greater interest in the
news about communities healing themselves of the wounds of past wars.
It will be a different kind of journalism; but the kind, perhaps, that is needed for a lasting culture
of peace.
Press and politics interact and their interaction shape both policies and programs for peace.
If the news media are to play a role, then efforts must be made to help them through a learning
process. This process:
o Must engage the resources of government who must be ready to share information and
whose own orientation for peace must communicate its programs through an information
component.
o Must include the NGO advocates who must find the time to share their experience and to
demonstrate their belief that there is much peace news that remains untold.
o Must include the public who must prove that peace news and peace stories can sell
newspapers as well as the news of disaster and of war.