News frames in conflict: a case study of news frames during the Maoist insurgency in Nepal

 A paper presented by Jeff Achen at the launch conference for “War, Media and Conflict” April 19-20, 2007

ABSTRACT:    This study examines the media’s informal, third party role in conflict and peace building. Specifically, it builds on a third party framework developed from conflict management research to explore how the media become participants in conflict in ways that constitute informal mediation and interaction. Through a study of Nepali media coverage of select periods in Nepal’s Maoist insurgency, this study explores whether media frames reveal attempts to influence the conflict. Using four coding categories commonly employed by informal mediators, a content analysis was conducted on Nepali television news transcripts, radio news transcripts, and newspaper reports. The study indicated that Nepali media frames intended to inform were strikingly similar to the conflict management frames employed by traditional informal third parties to resolve conflict. This information provides deeper insight into the practice of journalism in zones of conflict with implications for journalists and conflict resolution practitioners well beyond the borders of Nepal.

Every journalist covering war and conflict must consider the impact their reporting will have. Often, journalists covering conflict express their belief in the importance of “telling the story” for others to hear. But, to what end? To bring an immediate end to the conflict? To show who is the hero and who is the villain? To make others aware of the deeper issues so they might act? To help delineate a negotiable solution? Or is it simply to provide information and facts, nothing more?

The Society of Professional Journalists in the United States maintains a code of ethics which emphasizes “minimizing harm” (Society of Professional Journalists, Feb. 5, 2006). Media researcher Gadi Wolfsfeld has studied and written extensively on the media and conflict and agrees that journalists working in conflict ridden areas should at the very least “do no harm,” refraining from practices that raise the level of hate, distrust, and violence. For those who also practice journalism with some sense of obligation to do no harm, the complex dynamics of the media and conflict deserve more attention and serious academic study. Journalists must also realize that a deeper understanding of conflict in general and the media’s use of frames in particular offer some helpful perspectives in the larger debate of media effects, media bias, and media ethics. The main question examined here is are news frames, which journalists use with the intention ofproviding information, inherently consistent with conflict management frames, designed to resolve conflict?

RATIONALE

No conflict happens in a vacuum. The environment in which a given conflict takes place affects the actors and issues at play, and they in turn affect the environment. Folger, Poole, and Stutman (2005) gathered that such “conflict interaction” tends to be self perpetuating. This, they say, draws in people who are not part of the conflict. Since many conflict researchers have underscored the importance of third parties in conflict (Walton 1987; Folger, Poole, and Stutman 2005; Kressel 2000), particularly mediators and arbiters, it is equally important for journalism scholars to examine the media in this pool of potential third parties to conflict. In this paper, the media is examined as one such party with particular focus on news framing to see how the media frame issues in the cyclical interaction that constitutes conflict.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Conflict scholars and media analysts are only beginning to explore the conflict management roles the media play, particularly in large-scale conflicts characterized by warfare, political instability, and human rights violations (Wolfsfeld, 2004; Botes, 2003, 1998; Beaudoin & Thorson, 2002). A key ingredient of conflict is interaction. Interaction can be destructive, resulting in violent conflict and war, or it can be constructive, resulting in positive social change. “Handled properly, conflicts can strengthen relationships; they can help groups and organizations to reevaluate and clarify goals and missions; and they can also initiate social change to eliminate inequities and injustice” (Folger, Poole, & Stutman, 2005, p. 1).

Interaction also involves much more than the two or more parties in conflict. Interaction can, and often does, involve third parties. Davison (1974) and Thrall (2000) claimed the media play a role in conflict by influencing decisions about war and peace made by governments. Davison suggests communication can raise the level of information, focus attention on certain subjects, prioritize and provide terms for thinking about conflict, affect attitudes, help create a mood or frame of mind, and enable public opinion to take shape and function. “When we think or write about a subject the press has brought to our attention, we are likely to use the terminology we have learned from the media” (p. 10).

Previous frame analysis studies have attempted to show how news frames can be manipulated by the media to keep stories alive (Chyi & McCombs, 2004). Kensicki (2004) attempted to show that “neutral” frames, free of context and content about the causes, effects, and responsibility for social problems, represent unhealthy journalistic practice. Entman (2004) studied how power, specifically political power, can influence the dominance of one frame over others and how multiple frames are more representative of a comprehensive reporting of the facts. Ting & Maslog (2004) attempted toshow how “war journalism,” characterized by reactive reports, reports focusing on differences, and partisanship, is a predominant form of journalism in the Asian press. Yoon & Gwangho (2002) studied how news frames and media coverage in South Korea and Japan remains highly nationalistic in times of conflict. Wolfsfeld’s (2004) analysis illustrates how the news media, through the use of “narrative structures,” or frames, defined the political atmosphere, influenced the nature of the debate, impacted antagonists’ strategy and behavior, and raised and lowered the public standing and legitimacy of antagonists. Malinkina & McLeod’s (2002) analysis supports Wolfsfeld’s claim that the political environment has much to do with news frames and media coverage. Botes’s (2004) study of televised debates illustrates how the news media can act as a third party to conflict through framing.  

Burton (1969) claimed that the first step of conflict resolution is to make communication better. As Arno (1984) states, “media content does not merely reflect the level of conflict in the society but has a functional relationship to it: it either intensifies or diminishes it” (p. 3-4).

This study adds to the limited, but growing body of research on news framing and conflict by examining yet another category of news-breaking news. “Breaking news” is understood here as the dissemination of news immediately following an event without particularly deep or reflective insight into the events. Breaking news is usually the news first available in conflict and is often disseminated without a large degree of commentary or analysis. Previous research does not focus on breaking news, instead it has examined lengthy news and magazine articles that attempt to make sense out of the news rather than convey the immediate details of the news events. Breaking news is just as important as news analysis and in-depth reporting, perhaps more so, as it provides parties with the facts and information upon which they base initial reactions. Therefore, a closer examination of the way journalists report breaking news to inform their audiences is needed. The study of breaking news coverage in conflict also has another advantage. Melone, S., Terzis, G., & Beleli, O., (2003) claim that when the media provide coverage on a daily basis they are inevitably part of conflict interaction.

FRAMING 

Wolfsfeld (2004) claims that in conflict the media interact in ways that promote peace by emphasizing the benefits of peace (reporting on the potential gains or outcomes), raising the legitimacy of those working for peace (reporting on influential people or reporting the statements of those most adversely affected in conflict), and transforming images of the enemy (reporting in ways that humanize the enemy through exclusive interviews or by giving a personal history of the enemy). The media also emphasize the risks of peacemaking, raise the legitimacy of antagonists to peace, and stereotype the enemy.

One way the media interact in conflict most directly is through “framing” (Gitlin, 1980, p. 7). News frames have been defined as “persistent patterns of cognition, interpretation, and presentation, of selection, emphasis, and exclusion, by which symbol-handlers routinely organize discourse, whether verbal or visual” (Gitlin, 1980, p. 7). The practice of news framing is engrained in journalists early in their education and training. A line from one contemporary university-level journalism textbook illustrates the point well. “Mentally sift through the action around you, decide what’s important to the story and what can be ignored, and most of all decide on the story you will tell your audience” (Shook, 2005, p. 193).

Furthermore, Pan and Kosicki (2001) claim that there is a purpose to decisions in framing and that framing is essentially a contest over perspectives and ways to address issues. Such strategic decision making means frames are the result of choices meant to achieve a specific goal.

Sheppard (1984, 1989), Blumenfeld-Jones, and Roth’s (1989) conflict management research on informal third parties lead to the development of informal third party frames used to resolve conflict. Although Sheppard (1984) did not include the media in his discussion of informal third parties, his framework, when applied to the media, highlights the ways in which journalists could exert influence through conflict intervention procedures in the definition and discussion stages of conflict resolution. Sheppard claims informal third parties traditionally interact through several types of control. He lists process control, content control, and motivational control as three types of control exerted by third parties for the purposes of conflict management. In particular, Sheppard defines “content control” as a “third party’s attempts to control the substance of the conflict management activity” (p.156). Sheppard lists the control of the general communication process, the establishment of rules of evidence or content for consideration, the discouragement of or auditing of particular content, and the auditing, editing or withholding of content as factors in content control. Other researchers have referred to this concept as constituting “nondirective tactics” (Putnam & Poole, 1987, p. 572). The questions the media ask and the way in which they communicate about the conflict determines which issues get in the news, which values are supported, and how parties are portrayed. Media framing then is a direct control of the substance of the conflict management activity. Through frames the media exert content control, thereby participating in conflict.

Drawing on Sheppard’s framework for informal third party intervention, Sheppard, Blumenfeld-Jones, and Roth (1989) found that third parties “develop relatively simple interpretations, or frames, of a given dispute, which suggest the procedures they should use” (p. 180). Sheppard, Blumenfeld-Jones, and Roth developed from this a list of four frames most commonly employed by third parties. The frames are the right-wrong frame, the negotiation frame, the underlying conflict frame, and the stop frame.

By drawing on this informal third party conflict management literature, frame analysis can be conducted in a more concentrated effort to examine breaking news in the Nepali media for levels of conflict interaction and the degree to which such interaction constitutes conflict management. Essentially, if correlations between news frames and the four informal third party frames exist, these correlations would reveal areas in which the media are currently assuming conflict management roles in Nepal. If news frames correspond, even to a moderate degree, with conflict management frames, then we begin to understand the way in which the Nepali media already frame conflict in ways traditional informal third parties frame information for the purposes of resolving conflict.

METHOD

The main research question is: in large-scale conflict, are news frames, intended to provide information, inherently consistent with conflict management frames, designed to resolve conflict? Additionally, research questions two through six are more specific and help guide this research:

RQ2: To what degree do Nepali news reports frame parties in conflict as right or wrong?

RQ3: To what degree do Nepali news reports frame conflict as requiring tradeoffs and compromises.

RQ4: To what degree do Nepali news reports frame conflict as requiring further analysis of underlying problems and possible solutions?

RQ5: To what degree do Nepali news reports frame conflict as necessitating intervention?

RQ6: To what degree does Nepali media framing of conflict constitute conflict interaction?

To address these research questions, a content analysis was conducted on a total of 46 Nepali television and radio transcripts and newspaper reports (translated to English) obtained from BBC Monitoring archives and from Nepali newspaper website archives. The Nepali news media are evaluated using four coding schema (four types of frames). The reports cover three time periods surrounding peaks in political or military activity in the conflict, essentially three news events that warranted widespread breaking news coverage in Nepal. They include the day and subsequent two days surrounding:

1) the first attack by Maoist rebels on the country’s military posts on November 23, 2001,

2) the May 22, 2002 dismissal of parliament by the king,

3) and the reinstatement of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on June 2, 2004.

These events were selected because of their prominence in the unfolding of the Maoist insurgency and the fact that many of the other day-to-day news issues deal directly or indirectly with one or more of these three events. The first attack by the Maoist rebels on the country’s military posts significantly escalated the conflict as the army’s traditional role had never included combat against its own people. The dismissal of parliament in 2002 signaled the end of the parliament to date and the beginning of protest against the king’s increased centralization of power. The reinstatement of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in 2004 signals a renewed, if not controversial, attempt to ease tensions. The number of television, radio, and newspaper transcripts and reports were each restricted to what was available through the Kanitpur Online website, The Rising Nepal online news archives, and the BBC Monitoring news archive service between November 1st, 2004 and December 31st, 2004. The reports available online from November and December 2004 were as follows, four Nepali Kantipur Television news reports, 10 Radio Nepal radio news reports, 2 Kantipur FM radio news reports, and 30 newspaper news reports from the following newspapers: Kantipur Daily, The Rising Nepal, Nepal Samacharpatra, Annapurna Post, The Nepali Times, and The Kathmandu Post.  

These sources were selected due to their accessibility through the World Wide Web, their reputation as leading, relatively independent, news organizations in Nepal, and because of their availability in English. These news sources do not include what have been labeled as “Maoist” papers, as those publications were not available online.

The unit of analysis for this study was the individual news report. (Note: only news reports, not features or editorials, were analyzed). The 46 news reports vary in length from around 50 words to over 650 words. Report word counts were taken into consideration along with the fact that these are breaking news reports that immediately followed the events.

The reports were coded separately by three communication graduate students. They were provided with informal verbal instructions and several formal written instructions. The coding schema and coder instructions are included in the appendix. Percentages of agreement were also recorded.

Coders focused on text, headlines, and context using coding schema based on the following third party frames developed by Sheppard, Blumenfeld-Jones, and Roth (1989):

1) Right-wrong frame - A problem is portrayed as requiring identification of one party as right and one as wrong based on the rules that apply to this particular conflict, such as national law, international law, or cultural norms and expectations.

2) Negotiation frame - A problem is portrayed as requiring tradeoffs and compromises that can be made to result in a negotiated solution.

3) Underlying conflict frame - A problem is portrayed as requiring further analysis or as having other, deeper problems as its root cause and they are explored.

4) Stop frame - A problem is portrayed as necessitating intervention to immediately stop the conflict, even at the expense of addressing the issues.

The reports were coded according to their level of conformity with each frame as either “no conformity,”“moderate conformity,” or “high conformity.” Frames were not considered exclusive and news reports may conform to more than one frame. It is important to measure correlations between these conflict management frames and media framing because informal third parties who intentionally or unintentionally use these conflict management frames do exert influence that shapes and controls the unfolding of conflict. They do so through content control, which becomes more evident as more frames are employed. This is because each frame is a specific attempt to audit, edit or withhold content in a given way. The more content the media control, the higher the level of conflict interaction. Coders identified the number of frames each news report highly conforms to, thus providing a measure of conflict interaction.

The Nepali Media: A Summary

The tiny Hindu Kingdom of Nepal, tucked between the plateau of Tibet in China to the north and the Indian subcontinent to the south, has been battling an insurgency by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist since 1996. Between 1996 and 2004, the Nepali conflict is estimated to have claimed the lives of over 11,000 citizens, many of them innocent civilians.

Until 1990, a five-member polity ruled Nepal under the Panchayat system. The Panchayat system operated with a king and a five-member ruling council. This form of government was preceded by decades of rule by hereditary rulers known as the Ranas. At the close of 2004, the 15-year-old multi-party democracy had yet to realize genuine participation in government by many of its citizens. Poverty, political instability, and lack of education are but a few of the contested factors in the conflict.

At first glance, mass communication in Nepal has a fairly short, uncomplicated history. There was no radio or television news service until 1951. The only major newspaper in circulation from 1901 until 1951 remained tightly controlled by the ruling government. Unlike India, Nepal does not have a colonial past and was in fact generally closed off to the rest of the world until 1951. Despite efforts towards more freedom of expression, it was not until after 1990 that Nepali journalism earned official protections under the new constitution. These protections included freedom of expression, freedoms to publish and distribute, and freedoms to obtain information on public matters. Today, technology, an increasing literacy rate, and more commitment to disseminating information are key factors in the growth of the media in Nepal. In contrast to traditional Western notions of the media and its role in society, Nepali journalism is still much more closely associated with the state and the political elites than with its own citizenry. (Kharel, 2002)

Though the constitution includes press protections, a lack of significant advertising revenue and subsequent reliance on benefactors, often found in political party leadership, is just one of the constraints and limitations of a nearly non-existent media supportive infrastructure. This reality and limited journalism training may manifest themselves in news frames that advocate or attempt to influence their audiences. (Kharel, 2002).

Some positive aspects of Nepali journalism include influence in educating the public about socially disadvantaged groups such as women and Dalits, the lowest caste, traditionally referred to as “untouchables.” Dahal (2002) also claims the news media have helped raise some awareness and transform perspectives. However, the fact that journalism in Nepal has been shaped within the context of a young democracy full of highly divided political interests (Kharel, 2002), which lacks a media supportive infrastructure, as much as situational and cultural factors such as topography and the caste system, remains. Lastly, the civil insurgency continues to affect the media, substantially prohibiting reporting from the countryside and creating general fears of retribution for publishing critical reports of both the government and the Maoists leading to self-censorship in journalism (Howard, personal communication, March 14th, 2005).

PRESENTATION OF DATA

Content analysis of 46 Nepali news reports reveals that the right-wrong, negotiation, underlying conflict, and stop frames were employed by Nepali journalists. It also reveals that there was a good deal of overlapping frame conformity.

Not all of the news reports showed informal third party frame conformity, but this was expected since the four frames are not representative of all frames that could potentially be employed. This, however, was the exception rather than the rule. Overall, frame conformity throughout all 46 reports was extremely high. Of the 46 Nepali news reports, 41 employed news frames that conformed either moderately or highly to the right-wrong, negotiation, underlying conflict, or stop informal third party frames. Table 1 shows frame conformity and coder agreement for each news report. Though the mean coder agreement was 69.5%, some individual news reports showed even higher coder agreement.

The Right-Wrong Frame

By employing the right-wrong frame, a problem is portrayed as requiring identification of one party as right and one as wrong based on the rules that apply to a particular conflict, such as national law, international law, or cultural norms and expectations. Coders identified both moderate and high conformity across news reports by the level of indication of wrong-doing, illegal activity, or immorality and/or strong praise or recognition of accomplishment or suggestions to follow or support a given party in conflict.

Of the 46 news reports, 12 highly conformed and 21 moderately conformed to the right-wrong frame. Thirteenshowed no conformity to the right-wrong frame. Addressing RQ2, to what degree do Nepali news reports frame parties in conflict as right or wrong, the data indicates Nepali news reports frame parties in conflict as right or wrong to a considerable degree.

The Negotiation Frame

By employing the negotiation frame a problem is portrayed as requiring tradeoffs and compromises that can result in a negotiated solution. Coders identified both moderate and high conformity across news reports by the level of identification of one or more compromises, trade-offs, or negotiation/mediation/arbitration opportunities.

Of the 46 news reports, four highly conformed and 26 moderately conformed to the negotiation frame. Sixteenshowed no conformity to the negotiation frame. Addressing RQ3, to what degree do Nepali news reports frame conflict as requiring tradeoffs and compromises, the data indicates Nepali news reports frame conflict as requiring tradeoffs and compromises to a considerable degree.

The Underlying Conflict Frame

By employing the underlying conflict frame, a problem is portrayed as requiring further analysis or as having other, deeper problems as its root cause which are explored by the journalist through the presentation of underlying details, facts, and interviews with sources. Coders identified both moderate and high conformity across news reports by the level of identification of one or more deeper issues or underlying causes of conflict.

Of the 46 news reports, 18 highly conformed and 19 moderately conformed to the underlying conflict frame. Nine showed no conformity to the underlying conflict frame. The underlying conflict frame was the most frequent frame employed by the Nepali media. Addressing RQ4, to what degree to Nepali news reports frame conflict as requiring further analysis of underlying problems and possible solutions, the data indicates Nepali news reports frame conflict as requiring further analysis of underlying problems and possible solutions to a considerable degree.

The Stop Frame

By employing the stop frame, a problem is portrayed as necessitating intervention to immediately stop the conflict, even at the expense of addressing the issues. Coders identified both moderate and high conformity across news reports by the portrayal of conflict as necessitating one or more types of intervention to immediately stop the conflict.

Of the 46 news reports, nine highly conformed and 25 moderately conformed to the stop frame. 12 showed no conformity to the stop frame. Addressing RQ5, to what degree do Nepali news reports frame conflict as necessitating intervention, this data would seem to indicate that Nepali news reports frame conflict as necessitating intervention to a considerable degree.

Conflict Interaction

As evidenced above, conflict interaction was measured on one level through the identification of specific frames, namely the right-wrong, negotiation, underlying conflict, and stop frames. But, since each frame is a specific attempt to audit, edit or withhold content in a given way the use of overlapping frames indicates higher interaction. Thus, the level of conflict interaction on the part of the Nepali media was measured on another level by the number of overlapping frames in a given news report.       

The overlapping of Nepali news frames, more than one frame per report, was extremely high. A total of 91 occurrences of “moderate” conformity and 43 occurrences of “high” conformity were found across all 46 news reports. Only five news reports showed zero conformity to any of the four frames, and four showed conformity with only one frame.

Coders identified 15 of the 46 news reports as showing “high” conflict interaction and 31 as showing “low”conflict interaction. Addressing RQ6, to what degree does Nepali media framing of conflict constitute conflict interaction, the data indicates Nepali media framing of conflict constitutes significant conflict interaction.

DISCUSSION

Evaluation of the data invites a number of compelling conclusions that answer the main research question and confirm that, in conflict, news frames, intended to inform, are inherently consistent with conflict management frames, intended to resolve conflict.

Interpretations of the Data

A thorough consideration of this data should address multiple interpretations of the data. First, moderate levels of conformity were found in greater proportion to high conformity and zero conformity. Also, only eight news reports showed either no or single frame conformity. Evaluations of moderate conformity and high amounts of overlapping frames may be a symptom of a coding schema that is either too vaguely or too generally interpreted by coders. Though coder agreement was fairly high overall, a standard deviation of coder agreement of 27.67% also supports this possibility. Therefore, high conformity, as well as reports with 100% coder agreement, serve as the clearest indicators of informal third party framing and conflict interaction.

With that in mind, news reports with only high conformity and high coder agreement were also evaluated separately. In the end, third party conflict frames and conflict interaction levels were significant. Whether or not moderate conformity and lower coder agreement levels are taken into consideration, there remains compelling evidence that some Nepali news reports do employ informal third party frames, control the content of conflict communication, and interact in conflict.

Overall, the data is consistent with Gitlin’s (1980) definition of frames as “persistent patterns of cognition, interpretation, and presentation, of selection, emphasis, and exclusion, by which symbol-handlers routinely organize discourse, whether verbal or visual” (p. 7). It shows how certain frames, developed from a conflict management standpoint, are used repeatedly and persistently by the Nepali media. It identified frames that constitute patterns of cognition, presenting the legitimacy of actors as right or wrong, interpreting opportunities to negotiate, drawing attention to underlying conflicts, and by emphasizing the need to end conflict.

Framing as a Reflection of Politicization

The Rising Nepal, Nepal TV, and Radio Nepal are state run news organizations. Kantipur FM, Kantipur Daily, Nepal Samacharpatra, Annapurna Post, The Nepali Times, and The Kathmandu Post claim to be independent news organizations. But, the data reveals that four types of informal third party frames were discovered across television, radio, and newspaper news transcripts and reports. Given the generally intimate relationship between politicians and journalists in Nepal, it may be worth considering the “relational features” of the parties in conflict. A “relational feature” consists of any form of relational communication about and between the king, political leadership, and the Maoists, particularly through the media. The parties in conflict have each demonstrated specific relational features such as placing blame, making excuses for their actions and those of their opponent, and protecting their reputation or “saving face.” They have demonstrated this most deliberately through news interviews studied, but not included in the scope of this paper. It is possible, however, that these relational features are also manifest through the use of the four informal third party frames in breaking news.

Using Entman’s (2004) “cascading activation model” the data might best be understood in terms of frames “cascading” down from those in power. Nepali politicians may be the ones making evaluations of right and wrong, identifying negotiation efforts of their own, relaying the underlying conflict from their point of view, or calling for the end to violent conflict. Their frames then carry over through close political relationships with the media who then employ the frames in news reports.

Drawing on Wolfsfeld’s (1997, 2004) political contest and politics-media-politics cycle models, this data might also be understood in terms of news frames that are shaped in a larger political environment. The political environment of Nepal these days is certainly one in which evaluations of right and wrong are pervasive, potential negotiated settlements are frequently discussed but rarely realized, underlying conflicts are matter of the political point of view, and calls for the end to violent conflict can be heard from all quarters.

In-depth analysis of precisely who is influencing news frames, thereby identifying right or wrong parties, negotiation opportunities, underlying conflicts, or the need to stop the conflict, was not conducted. However, the politicization of the Nepali media may explain why content control in this way was discovered. This throws another variable into the research equation. Since the nexus of journalism and politics in Nepal is strong, perhaps the media are neither framing to inform nor to resolve conflict, but to politically influence the public. And, since certain cultural features described by Bista (1990) suggest that the Nepalese generally fail to put forth efforts to do things well for the general good, the notion that Nepali journalists are consciously employing news frames as an altruistic, informal third party in an attempt to constructively manage societal conflict seems not to fit.

The data, nonetheless, shows that these frames are present. As the main research question suggests, news frames, intended to inform, are inherently consistent with conflict management frames designed to resolve conflict. The purpose and manner in which these frames are employed would tell us much more about the conflict management competence of the Nepali media. Timing as well as the applicability and appropriateness of each frame are extremely important considerations in the conflict management process. The practice of journalism that stems from government loyalties and political agendas may not constitute good conflict management but it is nevertheless a form of interaction and participation.

This interpretation of the media’s motives also highlights the vital importance of using informal third party frames appropriately within conflict. Used instead for political influence, each of these same informal third party conflict management frames can exacerbate conflict and deepen divisions.

All arguments about motives aside, these findings indicate that the practice of journalism takes place through frames, a significant amount of which constitute informal third party conflict management framing. Journalists who accept the unavoidability of news frames might also accept the responsibility of framing in more accurate ways that lead to a shared and comprehensive understanding, as well as minimizing harm and potentially fostering peace. Two models of journalism stand out as examples: peace journalism and conflict sensitive journalism.

“Peace journalism” was conceptualized by Peace Studies professor Johan Galtung in the 1970s and has been explored by McGoldrick & Lynch (2000, 2001). Peace journalism is described as a broader, fairer, and more accurate way of framing stories (McGoldrick & Lynch, 2001). Journalists approaching conflict with a peace journalism orientation do not simply repeat facts which might demonize or set the stage for conflict. Instead peace journalists diligently pursue truth, objectivity and accuracy to understand and convey the complexity of conflict. They avoid portraying conflict as having only two parties with one goal. Peace journalists also seek out ways of reporting the less visible effects of conflict, ask questions that reveal common ground, show how people have been blocked and frustrated or deprived as a way of explaining violent conflict, and avoid victimizing and disempowering language.

A second model for the practice of journalism in conflict is “conflict sensitive journalism” which has been proposed by Ross Howard, a veteran Canadian journalist and research coordinator for the Institute for Media, Policy, and Civil Society‘s Media and Peacebuilding Framework project. “Conflict sensitive journalism” is described by Howard (2003) as accurate and impartial reporting that delivers several elements of conflict resolution. These elements include channeling communication, educating, correcting misperceptions, identifying underlying interests, solution building, and framing the conflict.

A “conflict sensitive” journalist is more aware of conflict dynamics and has gained competency in conflict analysis. Howard argues that “conflict sensitivity is a journalist’s pass into a deeper understanding of what it means to seek the truth in journalism” (2003b, p. 8). He claims conflict sensitive journalism falls within the realm of traditional journalism. “Conflict sensitive journalism makes journalists wiser and more aware of their impact, but doesn’t turn them into advocates” (Howard, personal communication, March 14, 2005).

These models suggest an approach to the practice of journalism that helps guide the construction of news frames in ways that constitute conflict management and peace building while striving to bring accurate, impartial information to news consumers.

The implications of media framing in ways that reflect conflict management practices should be further explored by communication and conflict management scholars and practitioners. The amount of influence and effects of this influence also require further exploration. Certainly, it is one thing to understand and employ a frame intended to resolve conflict, but to use it effectively, tactfully, and with sensitivity to its effects is quite another. These frames do not resolve conflict in and of themselves, in fact they might exacerbate conflict, but when utilized properly they increase understanding and facilitate cooperation. Understanding how journalists could effectively employ these frames is where the research could conceivably take us next.

As young journalists learn, as Shook’s college journalism textbook instructed, to mentally sift through the action, decide what’s important to the story and what can be ignored, and decide on the story to tell the audience, an awareness of framing and its implications for conflict should help them be more conscientious when representing, selecting, emphasizing, excluding, or elaborating on conflict in their news stories.

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