April 4, 2023; 11:30am-12:30pm [note time change]
The Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication (IPDGC) is pleased to host Visiting Scholar Ben O’Loughlin from Royal Holloway, University of London.
Ben will present his paper on Narrating peace in Ukraine-Russia: The presence of peace journalism in international news reporting.
Abstract: The war in Ukraine will end, and a settlement will have to be reached. How is this imagined, if at all? Does news media get close to the peace journalism prioritization of negotiated peace and stability, or remain focused on an end point: victory? This paper asks how peace was framed during the first year of the Russia-Ukraine war by conducting media content analysis regarding peace by the leading news sources of the combatant countries (Russia and Ukraine), Western countries that supported Ukraine (US, UK, France, Germany, and New Zealand) and a number of countries that took a more neutral position towards the war (India, South African and Malaysia). It attempts to understand how the narration of peace changed over the first year of the war, what factors and events contributed to these changes, and potential differences in these changes in each country. Finally, the paper examines the framing of the war from a peace journalism angle, which seeks to reframe traditional war reporting by focusing on non-violence (vs violence), the voice of ordinary people (vs elites), truth (vs propaganda) and solutions (vs victory framing). It considers whether peace journalism can contribute in any meaningful way towards finding common ground between the combatants and different actors observing the war, or offer a different narrative altogether that could serve as common ground for resolving the conflict. At the same time, we consider some of the potential pitfalls and limitations of peace journalism in covering such a highly contentious conflict marked by international aggression, war crimes, and disinformation.
Please join us for the presentation and discussion.
Event Details
Date: Tuesday, April 4, 2023; 11:30am-12:30pm ET
Venue: Room 429, School of Media and Public Affairs, 21st Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20052.
Refreshments will be provided.