PACS6914 2020 Detailed Schedule of Sessions and Readings 

Session dates and times:

August 17, 19, 21, 25 and 28, and September 1, 4 and 8, from 18:00 – 21:00 AEST.

(NB these will be followed by an open thread, which I will create on the Canvas site, where you will be able to ask questions about the assignments, and get responses from me and from each other).

Outline plan for each session:

First hour = presentation (from Session 2, preceded by open Q and A to recap previous session).

Second hour = break, plus group work and feedback.

Third hour = break, then watch video together and whole-class discussion.

Some useful online Peace Journalism resources:

http://www.mindanews.com/ PJ news website from the southern Philippines

http://mapmena.org/ PJ NGO from Lebanon
http://commonwonders.com/ PJ columns by Bob Kohler

http://mediaforpeacebuilding.com/category/peace-journalism/ Examples of PJ from around the world

http://www.park.edu/center-for-peace-journalism/peace-journalist.html The Peace Journalist biannual magazine

https://viewdigital.org/ PJ magazine from Northern Ireland

https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/ Peace and humanitarian perspectives on conflicts

http://www.peacedirect.org Grassroots peace initiatives and campaigns

 

Session 1, Monday, August 17: Introduction to peace journalism 

1. Introduction to the course and each other. 
2. History of Peace Journalism. 

‘Two versions’ of a story about conflict. What are we led or left to infer, by representations of conflict, about what is at stake, about the actions and motivations of the parties and about what is likely to happen next? 

How much PJ is there? Operationalising the PJ model into evaluative criteria for content analysis. 

1. Group exercise: select a report of a conflict, from a news website. How much War Journalism does it contain? What (if any) elements of Peace Journalism? 
2. Class exercise: watch and discuss video, Peace Journalism in the Philippines.

 

Required readings: 

1. Lynch, Jake (2020) ‘Peace Journalism’. In (eds) Jonathan Kent, Fen Hampson and Alp Ozerdem, Routledge Handbook of Peace, Security and Development. New York: Routledge, Chapter 22, pp 275-284.

1. Lynch, Jake and Johan Galtung (2010) Reporting Conflict: new directions in Peace Journalism, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press. Chapter 1, ‘Reporting Conflict: the low road and the high’, pp 1-24. 
2. Abdul-Nabi, Zainab (2015) ‘Based on the peace journalism model: Analysis of Al-Jazeera’s coverage of Bahrain’s uprising and Syria’s chemical attack’. Global Media and Communication 11(3), pp 271–302.

 

Supplementary reading 

• ‘War or Peace Journalism? Asian newspaper coverage of conflicts’, by Seow Ting Lee and Crispin C Maslog, Journal of Communication, vol 55 no 2, June 2005, pp 311-329 – Peace Journalism applied as a set of analytical criteria to newspaper output.
• ‘Peace Journalism in times of war’, Peace and Policy vol 13, 2008, eds Susan Dente Ross and Majid Tehranian, Transaction Publishers, Rutgers University, for Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research. Several case studies in content analysis using peace journalism. 

Session 2, Wednesday, August 19: Peace and Conflict and the media 

1. Recap of Session 1. 

2. Presentation: ABC Conflict Triangle; Violence Triangle, conflict resolution tools and change agents. 

3. Group exercise: Go back to your story of yesterday. Using internet research, find at least three alternative sources. How might the use of these sources help to re-frame the story as Peace Journalism?

4. Class exercise: watch and discuss (portion of) video, Soldiers of Peace. 

 

Required readings: 

1. Lynch, Jake and Annabel McGoldrick (2005) Peace Journalism, Stroud: Hawthorn Press. Chapter 2, ‘Conflict analysis: anchorage for journalists’, pp 33-54. 
2. Cottle, Simon (2010) ‘Global crises and world news ecology’. In: S Allan (ed), Companion to News and Journalism. London: Routledge, pp. 473–484. 
3. Lynch, Jake (2015) ‘Media in Peace and Conflict Studies’, in Communication and Peace: Mapping an Emerging Field, Julia Hoffmann and Virgil Hawkins (eds), New York: Routledge, pp 16-33. 

 

Supplementary reading: 

• Lynch, Jake and McGoldrick, Annabel, 2005: Peace Journalism, Stroud: Hawthorn Press, Chapter Three.
• Lakey, George (2020) ‘Understanding Trump’s game plan in Portland could be the key to preventing a coup in November’. July 25, Waging Nonviolence. Discusses dilemma for activists with reference to media responses to Trump deployment of federal forces to Portland, Oregon: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2020/07/portland-trump-federal-agents-law-order-preventing-coup/

 

Session 3, Friday, August 19: Media effects, framing and reception 

1. Recap of Session 2.
2. Presentation: Media effects, framing and reception theory.
3. Group exercise: identifying frames in reports of conflict.

4. Class exercise: Watch and discuss (hard-hitting) film, John Lyons’ Stone Cold Justice from ABC Four Corners. Is it Peace Journalism? 

 

Required readings: 

1. McGoldrick, Annabel and Jake Lynch (2015) ‘Audience responses to Peace Journalism: Merging results from a four-country research study’, Journalism Studies Vol 17, Issue 5, pp 628-646.
2. Lynch, Jake, Annabel McGoldrick and James Heathers (2015) ‘Psychophysiological audience responses to war journalism and peace journalism’, Global Media and Communication, Vol 11 No 3, pp 201-217.

 

Supplementary reading: 

• Lynch, Jake (2014) A Global Standard for Reporting Conflict, ch 3, ‘Australia’, pp 55-82.
• Entman, Robert (1993) ‘Framing: towards clarification of a fractured paradigm’. Journal of Communication 43 (4), pp 51-58.

 

Session 4, Tuesday, August 25: Influences on news content: objectivity, propaganda and censorship

1. Recap of Session 3.

2. Presentation: influences on news content. Structure and agency; objectivity and propaganda.

3. Group exercise: what has made this piece of news the way it is?

4. Class exercise: watch and discuss Sally Sara film for ABC Correspondent, from West Papua.

 

Required readings:

1. Freedman, Des (2009) ‘Smooth Operator: The Propaganda Model and moments of crisis’. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 6 (2) pp. 59–72. 
2. Hussain, Shabbir and Jake Lynch (2018) ‘Identifying peace-oriented media strategies for deadly conflicts in Pakistan’. Information Development 35 (5) pp. 703–713. 
3. Shixin Ivy Zhang (2015) ‘Chinese-style pragmatic objectivity in war reporting’. Asian Journal of Communication, 25 (2) pp 178-196. 
4. Lynch, Jake (2018) ‘Where I stand on Peace Journalism and the Academic Boycott of Israel’. Conflict and Communication Online, 17 (1) pp 1-4.
5. Gardner, Paul (2020) ‘China’s coronavirus cover-up: how censorship and propaganda obstructed the truth’. The Conversation, March 6 https://theconversation.com/chinas-coronavirus-cover-up-how-censorship-and-propaganda-obstructed-the-truth-133095
6. India arrests 50 journalists over critical coverage of CV response – Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jul/31/india-arrests-50-journalists-in-clampdown-on-critics-of-covid-19-response

 

Session 5, Friday, August 28: Layers of media effects: psychological and affective responses

1. Recap of Session 4.

2. Presentation: Psychological and affective responses to Peace Journalism.

3. Group exercise: watch two versions of two stories. What do they make you feel?

4. Class exercise: watch and discuss (a portion of) ‘Weapons of Mass Deception’ by Danny Schechter.

 

Required readings:

1. McGoldrick, Annabel (2011) ‘Peace Journalism Produces More Hope and Empathy in Filipino Audiences’, Tambara vol 28, pp 43- 79. 
2. McGoldrick, Annabel and Jake Lynch (2015) ‘Audience responses to Peace Journalism: Merging results from a four-country research study’, Journalism Studies 17 (5), pp 628-646 (and on Canvas site). 
3. McGoldrick, Annabel (2008) ‘Psychological effects of war journalism and Peace Journalism’. Peace and Policy vol 13: pp 86-98.

 

Session 6, Tuesday September 1: Practical PJ 

1. Recap of Session 5.
2. Presentation: Headings for a PJ codebook – a global standard for reporting conflict.
3. Exercise: practical Peace Journalism – producing a peace journalism report of a violent incident in conflict. 

Exercise: Working individually, produce a full Peace Journalism report of a violent incident in a conflict. Start from an example of War Journalism. In teams of two, take it in turns to play the role of source, and journalist. Using your new material, re-write the story. Be prepared to read your story out to the whole class! 

 

Required readings 

1. Lynch, Jake and Annabel McGoldrick (2013) ‘Responses to Peace Journalism’, Journalism: theory, practice and criticism. Vol 14 no 8, pp 1041-1058. 
2. Anderson, Leticia (2015) ‘Countering Islamophobic media representations: The potential role of peace journalism’. Global Media and Communication 11 (3), pp 255–270.
3. Chow-White, P. and McMahon, R. (2011) ‘Examining the “Dark Past” and “Hopeful Future” in Representations of Race and Canada’s TRC’. In I. Seaga Shaw, J. Lynch, and R. Hackett (eds.) Expanding Peace Journalism, Sydney: Sydney University Press, pp 347–374.

Supplementary reading:
Lynch, Jake and McGoldrick, Annabel, 2005: Peace Journalism, Stroud: Hawthorn Press, Chapter Six (sent out in time for class). 

 

Session 7, Friday September 4: practicality of implementation

1. Recap of Session 6.
2. Presentation: Journalists’ role perceptions and work routines – is PJ feasible in practice?
3. Group exercise: identify constraints and affordances in reporting chosen conflict issue.

4. Class exercise: watch and discuss BBC documentary on political influence of Rupert Murdoch in Britain TBC.
 

Required readings: 

1. Lynch, Jake (2019) ‘Making a Difference: 20 years of Conflict-resolving Media’. The Peace Journalist 8 (2), pp 16-17.
2. Lynch, Jake (2013) ‘Is Peace Journalism feasible? Pointers for research and media development’. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics, (2-3), pp 15-24.
3. Joseph Olusegun Adebayo (2016) ‘The Impact of Peace Journalism Training on Journalists’ Reportage of the 2015 Elections in Nigeria: An Action Research Case Study’. Communicatio, 42 (3), pp 361-377. 

 

Supplementary readings:

• Hanitzsch, Thomas (2007) ‘Situating Peace Journalism in Journalism Studies: a critical appraisal.Conflict and Communication Online’ 6 (2).
• Hackett, Robert A. (2006) ‘Is Peace Journalism possible? Three frameworks for assessing structure and agency in news media’. Conflict and Communication Online, vol. 5 no. 2.

 

Session 8, Tuesday September 8: further thoughts on media effects in the age of digital ‘filter bubbles’

1. Recap of Session 7.
2. Presentation: Media effects: weak or strong?
3. Group exercise: Q & A troubleshooting for assignments.

4. Class exercise: watch and discuss film, Peace Journalism in Mexico.

 

Required readings:

1. Bennett, W Lance & Shanto Iyengar (2008) ‘A new era of minimal media effects? The changing foundations of political communication’. Journal of Communication 58 (2008) 707–731.
2. Holbert, R Lance, R. Kelly Garrett, & Laurel S. Gleason (2010) ‘A New Era of Minimal Effects? A Response to Bennett and Iyengar’. Journal of Communication 60 (2010) 15–34.
3. Waisbord, Silvio (2019) ‘The progressive promises and the reality of news beyond industrial journalism’. Australian Journalism Review 41 (1) pp 9-16.
4. Bastian, M., Makhortykh, M., and Dobber, T. (2019) ‘News Personalization for Peace: How Algorithmic Recommendations Can Impact Conflict Coverage’. International Journal of Conflict Management, 30 (3), pp.309–328.

Assignments

There are four assessment tasks in this unit. 

1. Participation in discussions and exercises set in class, worth 10%.
2. A reflection on your learning (1,000 words) worth 25%.
3. A Conflict News Report (1,000 words) worth 25%.
4. A commentary on the conflict news report, responding to the specific questions below (3,500 words) worth 40%.
    

Learning reflection:

Using up to 1,000 words, show how your understanding of media roles in conflict has changed during the course. This does not need to be written as a formal academic essay, and does not need formal referencing. However, you will gain marks for showing that you have understood and considered arguments made by writers whose work is included in the required reading list. So, for instance, you might write: “One cognitive effect of media is suggested by Robert Entman’s framing model, which connects problem diagnosis with treatment recommendation”. 

 

Conflict reporting exercise: 

Take a recent development in a major conflict story which, you feel, was reported in such a way as to over-value violent responses and under-value non-violent ones – ie as War Journalism. 

Write a Peace Journalism article on it, suitable for publication in a major broadsheet newspaper or journalism website – of up to 1,000 words. You should find your own sources, by finding and using quotes and/or information from documents or websites. (NB unlike in a newspaper article, you do need to reference your sources please. Use footnotes so as to minimise disruption to the writing ‘flow’). 

 

Commentary:

THEN Write a commentary, of up to 3,500 words, explaining your reasoning: 

Using examples, say how this development was reported at the time. Say what characteristics of the reporting make it War Journalism. 

What influences combine to produce this pattern of reporting? Think about propaganda, and about the interplay of structure and agency.

Explain how you would apply the peace journalism model to derive evaluative criteria for content analysis on the coverage of this story.
What effect might this pattern of reporting have on the cognitive and psychological responses of readers and/or audience members? What effect might this pattern of reporting have on the actions and motivations of (any) party or parties to the conflict? How might this effect be transmitted? 

How is your own report different from the way the story was reported at the time? What different sources have you used, and why? Is it objective?
What effect might your report, and more like it, have on cognitive and psychological responses of readers and/or audience members? And on the actions and motivations of (any) party or parties to the conflict? How might this effect be transmitted? 

Would it be feasible in practice for a media outlet (of what kind?) to run your report? 

 

This commentary should be written as a formal academic essay, with full referencing. 

You will gain marks for making appropriate use of the required readings, to elaborate your points, develop and support your argument.