Impact of New Media on Civil and International Conflict

Impact of New Media on Civil and world massive contradictIntroductionIn this essay I am going to elaborate on the case that the media interpret on civil and international conflict in todays world. I will take over with a brief introduction of war and its causes and effects, the powers that the media run fors and the impact of their coverage before, during and perhaps after the conflict.War as we know is characterised by extreme violence and violence goes with the destruction of tribe, human societies ar deeply modify by wars as residential areas, public infrastructures, hospitals and the rattling basis of human existence are destroyed. culture is completely denied the youth, no hope and aspirations for the future. Crops for livelihood will be completely destroyed and causes stagnation whole over the place, no economic development, and no access to basic needs. Suffering lingers, poverty and backwardness die the peoples heritage.The last two decades rush witnessed a lo t of conflicts that are mainly rule by civil wars which are classified advertisement armed conflict, very deadly and devastating takes place betwixt the people in the same country, and these countries are usually experiencing sectarian or governmental transitions/changes, because it (democracy) is sweeping crosswise the countries of the world today. And as nature will entertain it, such(prenominal) changes must not come without adversary and violence.When these wars occur the media is used as a tool. The mass media is the platform by dint of which the people receive nurture. This instruction can be transmitted either through radio, idiot box fullcasting, newspapers/magazines, internet or mobile names. This makes the media very powerful and influential. Because of its ability to inform the entire population at the same time could get downstairs ones skin a positive or negative result.The medias affair in spreading incorrect information or hostile propaganda becomes an issue of great significance. For the fact that these wars often occur in remote areas and have change histories, the international communitys view of them will depend to a large extent on how journalists certify and explain the conflict. On the new(prenominal) hand some of the deadliest conflicts receive little or no publicity in the global media. An example was the Sierra Leone war which received little mention globally (Hamburg, Vance, 1997) a number of examples in the 1990s suggest that the impact of media reporting may generate political action.Michael Beschloss wrote in 1993 that the war in Bosnia was only the latest example of an overseas crisis in which hunting television pictures arouse the American people to demand their government do something.(Rotberg, Weiss, 1996) also in the late mid-eighties before the Bosnia war there was famine in Somalia that killed a lot of people through famishment that led to the decision of the United States to launch Operation Restore Hop e. It was the presence of media and their reporting clearly the rightful(a) situation at hand that make it politically difficult for the government not to intervene to cede the situation. The presence or absence of media attention may mean life or death for alter populations.Accuracy is one of the most important concerns about media reports, this is specially important when distance and time limitations are involved so as to subdue delays before the situation gets out of hand.The role mass media play in todays conflicts around the world is very important. This role can be classified into two different categories. The media could takeAn active part in the conflict and has responsibility for growingd violence,Or stay fencesitter and out of the conflict, thereby contributing to the resolution of conflict and alleviation of violence (conflict and the role of the media, 2006).The role taken up by the media in any conflict at any stop whether before and after depends on a complex s et of factors. This strictly depends on the medias kind with the actors in the conflict and the independence the media has to the power holders in society.It is because of the challenges and difficulties that the media faces during conflict that led to the establishment of International Media digest (IMS) in 2001. This was prompted after the Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia massacres that took place in the 1990s situations in these conflicts and in fact other conflicts in the past where the media was universe manipulated and used as a tool to fuel violent conflict.For instance, during Rwandan genocide the media (radio and newspaper) elbow room were used to instigate killing, mobilize the majority, the Hutus to constantly remind them about the already made plans to totally wipe out the Tutsi minority. The international media turned a blind eye, and before the world could genuinely know what was going on nearly a million people had been killed.The purpose for setting up the IMS To support local media so as to maintain operations and conduct their spirt as pros.To work and enable media to seek to promote peace, reduce conflict,Strengthen democracy and bring about dialogue in close partnership with local mediaAnd media support organisations nationally as surface as internationally.Taking broad sector approach to media development, this means the media sector must be addressed to achieve well-functioning and independent media that ensures a secrete media environs, a strong media infrastructure and professional media content.South Eastern Europe is one such region where pagan tensions have had such a disintegrating effect. In the last decade, political and civil changes in the region have changed citizens ideas on democracy, civic participation, and cultural tensions. Throughout the New Europe, hate vocabulary has been increasingly in general use online (Gaines, 2000). Racist and nationalistic dis word form continues to be spread wide on regional media. Press radio, and television broadcasts all increase to the severity of already existing tensions (Thompson, 1994). George Krimsky (1996), cofounder of the International spunk for Journalists (ICJ), notes that irresponsible and inaccurate journalism (or its wicked cousin, the hate-mongering media) can fan the flames of violence in ethnic or communal confrontations.Irresponsible journalism has played a huge role in the increase of conflict in the region, that media practitioner Maida Bebic of radio Kameleon in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovinian, has announced, The media started the war in the former Yugoslavia they will have to end it, too. (Cited in Burton, 2001)The international community can help to prevent conflict and assist people affected by war to recover. This can be achieved through different ways. This can be achieved through building local capacity in broadcast and print media, and introducing new media, in order to produce and distribute objective and accurate local content.In the developing world radio broadcasting is particularly very vital considering the availability of other media accessibility, like internet, satellite television or smart phone which could be scarce or limited and plus the high rate of illiteracy and poverty majority of the people can afford radio, so it can be used as a strength to dispatch information.Independent journalists face very serious challenges in the conflict areas, and some of the journalists/editors get harassed, kidnapped, piece in prison, even murdered. There is need for every government, especially government from the developing countries to stop harassing and jailing journalists. Egyptian government is holding Aljazeera journalists in prison and has now sentenced some of them to ten years imprisonment on false accusations including other journalists that were also sentenced to serve several years imprisonment, and some of them like Peter Greste have spent over three hundred years in jail without trial. All the se arrests and detentions are to keep and silence journalists and to tag them with bad reputations (The Print edition, Al Jazeera, June, 2014) some of these journalists have been sentenced in absentia, without them being present in court.Rather than government putting journalists in prison, they should provide them with security, especially international journalists make environment conducive and if possible provide training facilities for them so as to be able to execute their line of business even though they are already working in a war-torn zone.It is very vital and essential to encourage the use of media to promote peace, nonviolent problem solving and decent understanding mingled with ethnic groups.UNESCO has long supported the development of local independent film, radio, television, and internet-based media in developing and transitional countries, including in conflict and post-conflict areas. UNESCOs extensive work program includes sponsoring research and knowledge-shar ing conferences, defining best practices, offering in-field professional training and financial and operations support (Stauffacher, 2005) beyond media development, it has employed innovative techniques in conflict zones for example, livelihood NGOs in Afghanistan to create travelling cinemas that move from village to village to present educational and health information.UNESCO held a conference in Belgrade in May 2004. This was to support the media in violent conflict and countries in transition and the concluding Belgrade Declaration. (World Press Freedom day, 2004)Conference was organised in Copenhagen for two days the 26th and 27th of November 2004 to build upon the conclusions presented in the Belgrade Declaration from the UNESCO conference. The subject of discourse of the conference was the questionable situation facing media development in the wake of peacekeeping and humanitarian aid operations in conflict-affected areas. The need for rapid and effective dissemination of i nformation from aid organisations and peacekeeping forces sometimes collides with the development of an independent media sector (IMS, 2004)The attitude towards the media in Burma, Myanmar is now much to a greater extent clearly defined, though not for better. change surface the lowest attempts to report the facts are ruthlessly crushed. The military Junta keeps a strict verify on the media, leaving no freedom either to local or foreign journalists. The Burmese press operates under strict security review and citizens risk jail if they are found guilty of giving false information domestically or internationally (Herbert, 2013) International Media Support has been working to assist in alleviating the problems of strict control on the media for some time now. IMS is carrying out a comprehensive media development programme comprising a wide range of activities including working to support policy reforms, capacity building of media and journalists. IMS in collaboration with Myanmar P eace Centre providing conflict sensitive journalism training workshop throughout the country.The BBC Afghan Education Projects (BBC AEP). The aim of this program is to bring reconciliation among different groups and raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in other to avoid an epidemic in post-conflict Afghanistan. BBC AEP produces these programs in different formats, drama, soap opera, educational features and cartoon magazines, all these reach more than half of Afghan population. (Stauffacher, 2005)In Sri Lanka and Nepal the journalists are under constant harassment and intimidation because of civil wars and innate conflicts going on in these places. The Sri Lankan government who is fighting against the Tamil separatist movement, imposed direct censorship of military news under emergency regulations (Herbert, 2013, p. 104)The Philippines president Joseph Estrada took office in1998, since then several developments has brought his administrations commitment to freedom of the press into question . He has been accused of curtailing media freedom in a country that has embraced the principles of free expression in recent times. The Philippians most widely circulated paper the Philippians Daily Inquirer was being boycotted in retaliation for criticizing the government.Turkey is said to have the most number of journalists in detention more than any other country in the world. Those journalists are advocating for the independence of Kurdish people and at such being thrown in jail.NGOs play very important role in media development. For instance, All Africa globular Media is a multimedia content service provider, systems technology developer, and the largest electronic distributor of African news and information worldwide. The website posts over 1000 stories daily in English and French and offers multilingual programming as well as over 900,000 articles in a searchable archive.ConclusionThis essay has highlighted the critical role and importance of the media during wars and crisis and of course the power and influence they have. Most conflicts occur in domestic political settings where there are signs that the means of mass conversations continue to increase in importance, this is suggesting that continued efforts are needed to understand the role of national media in conflict.BibliographyBlankson, I. A, and Murphy, P. D. (2012) Negotiating Democracy Media transformations inemerging democracies (Google eBook) Suny PressBlondel, Y. I (2003) Violent conflict and roles of the media Uppsala University PublishersHamburg, D. A and Vance, C. R. (1997) Preventing deadly conflict DIANE PublishingHerbert, J. (2013) practicing global journalism Exploring reporting issues worldwideCRC PressPuddephatt, A. (2006) Conflict and the role of the media International Media SupportPublicationRotberg, R. I. and Weiss, T. G. (1996) from massacres to genocide The media, publicpolicy, and humanitarian crisis (Google eBook) Brookings Institution PressStauffacher, D. 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