I think we can not label media only for destructive role. there are many examples which proves that media played positive role for development of the society for example in 1979 Iranian media welcomed Iranian revolution and portrayed a very positive picture of all important leaders of that time. Media also tried to stop Iraq war and highlighted all type of point of view therefore now we have all type of information however it is also important to narrow down your research region and type vise. At present it is very vast topic and difficult to focus on it.

i agree with you, Aqeela, but from what i have seen in Darfur and Rwanda the very negative role was played by the local and international media

Yes Hassn I agree, as I expressed that it very case to case and region to region but all recent communication and rapid changes in different sectors are due to media especially if you look into economical sector and markets , science and technology etc.Darfur and Rwanda cases , I think political issues and may be not reported by local media correctly but again we need to check the source of the report ( local, international, regional and valid or yellow journalism). "With Iron axe we can not cut even a small branch of tree from jungle without wooden handle" , therefore it is important to look into all important elements and research questions and objectives of hypothesis.

There is a dark side to journalism. If we ponder the role of the media

in the most atrocious crimes of the past decade (former Yugoslavia,

Rwanda), some media have been guilty of fanning the flames of ethnic

hatred and even of coordinating the dirty work of the ethnic cleansers

and the génocidaires. If we study the “banality of evil” (ethnic violence

in Nigeria, communal violence in Indonesia, religious clashes in India),

the media or at least many of them have been guilty of resorting to

damaging clichés and stereotypes of the “other”, of recklessly simplifying

complex issues and just looking for drama, blood and violence.

There are many normative assumptions around this question. One of my colleagues at iMedia Associates, Emrys Schoemaker, has systematically assessed the evidence on the role of media in conflict. See the peer-reviewed article: 

Schoemaker and Stremlau, Media and conflict: An assessment of the evidence

Progress in Development Studies April 2014 14: 181-195

or read the summary attached. 

There is an entire field in journalism studies dedicated to this question. It is called "Peace Journalism" and you should look for the works of Johan Galtung as a starter.

Yes Galtung is a big name in this field.

I agree more with DJ Sullivan that media is largely a reflection of societies messages constructions, and depending on how that message is interpreted by the audiences(who decodes the symbols constructed by the sender-communicator or impressions/perceptions those symbols represent in the audience minds). Further, messages interpretation are relative to regions worldview, a given geography or individual audience, hence in all these cases justifying Use and Gratification theory/ development adoption theories that all media messages are used by individual audiences. Equally as Hassan has said, if a media is inclined to abuse like in Rwandas' case in 1994, then it can serve can be considered as a propaganda tool, justifying the propaganda theory. The bottom line media seeks for a specific audience, and the individual audience a looking for a media that meets his or her needs.

I strongly believe that media can play a great role in conflict. It may be positive and negative. I did a research on conflict in Assam, India and media's role. The mass media in Assam has been playing an important role particularly in covering the news of violence and various peace initiatives and disseminating the information to the people or parties concerned on such matters. The media’s focus of attention is now on searching the roots and extent of violence.

Here you find a comprehensive overview on the topic: http://www.peacejournalism.org/Peace_Journalism/Welcome.html

Thank you very much Cornelia, it seems to be very rich content, it will help me allot.

TQ  

The question is, does the media play a role in conflict prevention? My natural answer is yes. The media are the agents or agencies of mediation on a wide range of social, economic, environmental, and political issues.

At the same time, conflicts have become a system in our society. Note that there are two main types of conflicts which I wish to clarify in this presentation. In this case, there are functional and dysfunction conflicts which occur in the society.

For example, functional conflicts (creative conflicts) are necessarily positive as they reflect the differences in opinions, ideas, perceptions, and other forms of expressions in a free society. On the other hand, dysfunctional conflicts are associated with violence which may lead to damage or loss of life, infrastructure, facilities, or property.

There are various units of measurements of conflicts. Conflicts occur at individual, family, group, community, national, regional, and international levels. Similarly, media operations (both print and electronic media) can also be categorised as community media, national media, regional media, and global media.

The truth is that the media has a social responsibility to promote peace and prevent dysfunctional conflicts in the society. It should promote creative conflicts such advancing conflicting views on different subjects or issues within the province of human rights, democracy, political, or constitutional framework.

This debate is not only confined to the conventional mainstream media or community media (radio, television, internet, films, newspapers, magazines, and newsletters) alone, but also relevant to the social media as well. How can the media contribute to conflict prevention?

These are some of the things that the media should do in order to play a credible role in conflict prevention, resolution, management, and post-conflict peace building activities. First, the media should practice the key elements of the social responsibility theory of the press (media).

This means the media is seen to be ethical, professional, competent, and socially responsible in all its programming or coverage of regular news or events. So its outputs should reflect objective, accurate, fair, balanced, true, and timely with an express provision for the right of reply for the general audience or an aggrieved party (person, public, or organization). Second, the media should be well informed about the conflict system itself.

That also means the media should the causes (early warning), process, impact, assessment, and evaluation of a conflict situation. Conflict report should be professionally done and journalists should undergo proper training on the subject. All the information and sources must be verified and authenticated professionally. All the apologies should both prominent and prompt as a sign of good practice and code of conduct.

Third, the media should not be used as an institution for fomenting conflicts at any level. We have heard of Radio Miles Collins (one thousand hills) which was used in Rwanda to execute genocide there in 1994. We have also witnessed the indictment of a Kenyan Radio DJ, at the ongoing ICC trail in Hague (Netherlands).

We also know that many journalists or media practitioners have lost their lives, others locked up in prisons, while some media houses have been closed or destroyed for allegedly causing conflicts or subverting peace and security. The case involves the incumbent Kenyan President, H.E, Uhuru Kenyatta, among others. This is about a bloody civil strife (dysfunctional conflict)  which led to the death of up to 1500 local Kenyans in the 2007 presidential election results dispute. It also caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Kenyans internally and several Kenyan refugees in Uganda hitherto (2014).

As a result, the media can prevent conflicts at all levels of the society. To guarantee its institutional role in peace keeping, building, and conflict prevention; the media should have editorial policy and professional competence to set the agenda and walk the talk. The policy should also guard against any potential internal and external abuse.The media should practice self-regulation on this issue too.

Thank you Dr. Okaka for your elaboration, but let me disagree with you regarding what you call  "functional conflicts" from my point of view the term conflict refer to a negative meaning, for the positive one i prefer to use word as diversity or dissension, as conflict normally lead to clash and confrontation, while diversity or dissension lead to enrich the civil debate