Abstract
Imagine a blackout on everything we associate with medical practice; never to be reported in the media. Disease, however, is to be reported fully, in gruesome detail, particularly when elite persons are struck. The process of disease is seen as natural, as a fight between the human body and whatever is the pathogenic factor, a micro-organism, trauma, stress and strain. Sometimes one side wins, sometimes the other. It is like a game, even like a sports game. Fair play means to give either side a fair chance, not interfering with the ways of nature where the stronger eventually wins. The task of journalism is to report this struggle objectively, hoping that our side, the body, wins.
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Notes
- 1.
This text was first published as: “Constructive approaches to community and political conflict”, in: Track Two, Vol 7, No 4, December 1998, pp. 7-10.
- 2.
An example would be the excellent Health (and Science) page in the International Herald Tribune, which could serve as a good model for a Peace/Conflict Transformation page, filled with information, reports on new thinking, critical evaluation. To explore this analogy consider the typical finding from a UCLA study about TV violence as reported in Washington Post, 6 February 1996, “Study Finds Real Harm in TV Violence”:
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“Perpetrators of violent acts on TV go unpunished 73 % of the time”, “When violence is presented without punishment, viewers are more likely to learn the lesson that violence is successful”.
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Most violent portrayals fail to show the consequences of a violent act, “no harm to the victims” (47 %), “no pain” (58 %).
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Few programmes (only 4 %) emphasize nonviolent alternatives to solving problems.
Translated into illness/health reporting this means:
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Nothing is done about a disease 73 % of the time;
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Disease does no harm (47 %), leaves no pain (58 %);
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There is no alternative to disease, such as prevention (96 %).
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Centuries ago this was an adequate description of attitudes to illness/health: little was done, disease is bad luck. That has fortunately changed, but violence in the media has continued unabated; see Thomas E. Radecki, “Violent Behavior Images Diet of Media Violence”, Social Alternative s, May 1987, pp 8–21.
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- 3.
Lest the journalist reader comes up with facile remark that this is only arm-chair theorizing constructed in some university, permit me to add that I worked three years part time as a journalist for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, 1960–1962 and in 1965, producing a number of radio and TV programs. I remember very well the thrill of interviewing the Dalai Lama, Fidel Castro etc., and how much more meaningful interviews with more common people were in understanding what was going on.
- 4.
This is described very clearly by the leading specialist on war reporting, Philip Knightley, in his The First Casualty, New York, London: Harcourt Brace, 1975 ("truth" is his first casualty, although it is of course ‘peace’). Also see Mira Behan’s excellent Kriegstrommeln: Medien, Krieg und Politik, München, DTV, 1996, on the war reporting from Yugoslavia. In that case the role of the public relations agencies (particularly Hill & Knowlton and Ruder Finn) seems to have been so massive, and filters to sort out PR virtual reality from real reality so few, that it is difficult to assess the situation without knowing what the PR firms transmitted.
For an earlier period, Reporting World War II, American Journalism, Parts I (1938–1944), II (1944–1946), Library of America, 1995 is an excellent source. War is described as ‘organized insanity’, as ‘madness’; attacks are not ‘surgical’, civilians are not ‘collaterals’ (that kind of sanitized Newspeak is the predicament of our generation). Still, the focus is on war, not peace.
- 5.
Anybody advocating anything like that might ask whether they themselves would be willing to be killed, sacrificed, for the sake of somebody getting to the ‘table’, some kind of altar. In that case the faith in the ‘table’ as peace instrument must be as high as the patriotism of yesteryear.
- 6.
See Johan Galtung and Richard Vincent, U.S. GLASNOST': Missing Political Themes in U.S. Media Discourse, Cresskill NJ: Hampton Press (March 1999).
- 7.
A good example would be many years of disarmament and cooperation in reconstructing the country in Nicaragua, by the Centro de Estudios Sociales (Apartado 1747, Managua, Nicaragua), headed by Alejandro Bendaña and Zoilamé_Ica Narváez.
- 8.
Many, reporting war or peace or both, are “Journalists Who Risk Death” International Herald Tribune, 5 August 1997, by Anthony Lewis: “In the last 10 years, 173 Latin American reporters, photographers, columnists and editors have been murdered. … They were just doing their ordinary job: trying to publish the truth". Risk should unite all kinds of journalists.” For an excellent introduction for any kind of journalist to the intricacies of conflict, see Richard E. Rubenstein et al., Frameworks for Interpreting Conflict: A Handbook for Journalists, Fairfax: Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, 1994. The present author’s Peace By Peaceful Means, London, New Delhi, Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 1996, Part II is about conflict analysis and resolution. For the reality of war reporting, see Wilhelm Kempf, Gulf War Revisited: A Comparative Study of the Gulf War Coverage in American and European Media, Konstanz: Projektgruppe Friedensforschung, September 1996, and by the same author Media Coverage of Third Party Initiatives—A Case of Peace Journalism? Projektgruppe Friedensforschung, Conference on Peace Journalism, Konstanz, 13–15 June 1997. From that same conference, also see the excellent paper by Heikki Luostarnen and Rune Ottosen, Challenges for Journalism in Restricted Conflicts After the Second World War, also with a checklist of what to look out for.
Further Readings
Galtung J (2000) “The Task of Peace Journalism”, in: Ethical Perspectives—A Quarterly Review, 7, 2-3: 162–167.
Galtung J (2007) “Peace Journalism as Ethical Challenge”, in: Asteriskos, ¾: 7–16.
Galtung J (2008) “Peace Journalism: What, Why, Who, How, When, Where?”, in: Kempf (ed.) Wilhelm The Peace Journalism Controversy. (Berlin: Verlag Irena Regener): 19–33.
Galtung J (2008) “What Is Peace Journalism?”, in The Pax Eye World Peace Journal, 1: 5–14.
Galtung J; Jake, Lynch (2010) “Reporting Conflict: New Directions in Peace Journalism”. (St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia: University of Queensland Press): 225.
Galtung J (2010) “Peace Journalism: 80 Galtung Editorials on Peace and War”, in: Antonio Carlos da Silva Rosa(Ed): (TRANSCEND University Press Popular (www.transcend.org/tup), Volume 5): 191.
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Galtung, J., Fischer, D. (2013). High Road, Low Road: Charting the Course for Peace Journalism. In: Johan Galtung. SpringerBriefs on Pioneers in Science and Practice, vol 5. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32481-9_8
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