The Contributions of Communication and Media Studies to Peace Education

The central premise of this book chapter is that communication and media studies are central to peace education (PE), which teaches people and groups grassroots strategies for preventing outbreaks of violence, managing ongoing conflict, and sustaining newly signed peace accords. The authors' primary framing argument is that communication - face-to-face interaction, radio, television, film, the internet, puppetry, music, dance, theatre - can facilitate the development of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours that are conducive to achieving peace. The focus of this chapter is on PE in the context of relations between members of ethnopolitical groups, PE designed for those embroiled in social and political conflicts (not interpersonal conflicts), and non-formal PE (as opposed to formal PE, which operates within schools).

The authors begin by illustrating how debates about communication and media studies inform the workings of PE. They note that communication and media studies scholars seek to assess or recommend methods for improving the impact of contact between groups at the face-to-face level and the use of a communication campaign intervention (CCI) into conflict, and then to evaluate the impact or capabilities of contact and CCI on achieving the desired outcomes - e.g., reducing aggressive and violent intergroup behaviours. (The authors note that the reader looking specifically for communication and media studies research into conflict will find most of it organised under the category "communication for social change".)

Next, the chapter explores why an understanding of communication, including how and by whom messages have been used to "construct" a group in conflict - a group having been defined by qualities such as nationality, ethnicity, culture, religion, or political identities - and how, through negotiation processes, communication can be used to intervene - reconstructing the boundaries of that group or deconstructing those boundaries altogether. As the authors explain, PE, whether it is a face-to-face interaction or a media campaign, involves teaching people how to use the tools of communication to create new meanings over time. "PE entails the formation of associations between concepts within a discourse. Thus, PE is intimately linked to interpretations. We argue that new interpretations conducive to peace emerge from the discursive path taken by conflicting parties. Interpretations of reality begin by competing with each other and contending for validity and proceed toward new intersubjective interpretations that form a basis for cooperation." The authors stress that this is not a mechanical process; they explore communicative strategies for improving "knowledge of the other", which include invitational discourse, cooperative argument, dialogue, and reconciliation.

The authors move on to explore contributions to PE from the mass communication tradition. They explain that ethnopolitical adversaries are typically segregated from one another, such that face-to-face contact can be difficult for many reasons - e.g., they may choose not to meet, it is financially unfeasible, they fear doing so, the potential to change a participant's behaviours after only one meeting is unlikely, etc. Communication technology can, according to the authors, overcome some of these barriers. To cite only one example, telecentres have helped make the option of using the internet more feasible for PE practitioners attempting to establish mediated contact in remote and difficult-to-reach villages across Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

That said, the authors provide various reasons to support their conviction that "simply replacing contact with mediated contact does not magically achieve peace. Technology is embedded in social relations and therefore requires heeding intervening effects of the relations or context present in any given conflict. The introduction of new media technologies alone does not resolve social-psychological barriers to communication and behavior..." Drawing on social-cognitive theory (SCT), they emphasise the importance of 2-way communication when it comes to designing a CCI for PE. They contend that 2-way communication can be achieved via 1-way media, but it must engage the audience effectively. Furthermore, consumption of messages is not straightforward - e.g., a population that regards a government as a biased player within a conflict may disregard or oppose a PE programme broadcast via a media source owned by that government. The authors offer several examples of the ways in which children and youth receive PE interventions, such as the Israeli-Palestinian versions of Sesame Street, noting that scholars argue that children are active, not passive viewers. "Thus, any tendency to assume or presume that children are more likely to become 'brainwashed' by PE propaganda is problematic."

In concluding, the authors recommend that PE practitioners first conduct an assessment of who is most often named an opinion leader on the particular behaviour the PE programme seeks to alter (e.g., a political belief) and then offer these individuals the chance to participate in contact along with inducements for doing so (e.g., provide them with mediated contact to better ensure their privacy). In conclusion, they argue that the principles and processes of both mediated and face-to face communication cannot continue to be ignored if PE is to be successful. Therefore, they are confident that communication and media studies will come to play a unique contributing role to PE.

The book in which this chapter is included is available in hard copy only. For more information, or to request a copy of the chapter in PDF format, please contact Yael Warshel at the address listed below.