The Media and Peaceful International Relations - Research Paper Example

International media and telecommunications are not promoting peaceful International relations Introduction The function of the media inconflict and war is not straightforward. Telecommunications and the media represent a double-edged sword. When the media propagates disinformation with the aim of manipulating public sentiments and messages of intolerance, it becomes a frightful arsenal of violence. Some scholars argue that the media is a weapon employed by warring parties in a conflict based on evidence from various places such as Darfur, Bosnia, and Rwanda. In this context, it becomes an arm used by fighting armies during the war. Outlining the crisis of democracy in the current century, Acayo holds that the media continues to as an arm of corporate and conservative interests. The media has different and opposite roles during the war. During a war for instance, the media could choose to concentrate on destroying the war as opposed to exalting the freedom from the tyranny. This discourse delves into analysing the position that International media and telecommunications are not promoting peaceful International relations. The author of the paper posits that the media could design and package the war as an invasion against an attack. Furthermore, telecommunications and media can outline negative against a positive attitude during the conflict. News Media benefits from the development in technology sector. Definitions of terms Strategy Strategy in the simplest definition entails understanding who the players are in international relations as well as it stands in the society today. The comprehension covers the real position and both external and internal perceptions. The definition also includes having clear understanding of where international relations should get to and means of ensuring it gets to the destination. Substance It is the effective implementation of strategy involving the media and telecommunications to influence the legal, economic, social, political, and cultural aspects positively. Symbolic Actions They constitute specific forms of substance with an intrinsic communicative ability. Among others, they are structures, innovations, reforms, legislation, institutions, investments, and policies in the media sector. They remain suggestive, memorable, remarkable, and newsworthy. Operationalization o f Key Terms Operationalization of important terms entails the five Ws. Who: Whom do international relations affect, who carries a distinctive stake in the results, how do the stakeholders relate to each other including influence, power, and affluence? What: What initiates the failure by the media and telecommunications in promoting a more peaceful international relations (IR)? What issues can the media resolve in IR? When: When did the media and telecommunications start failing in promoting a more peaceful IR? Where: Types of geographical as well as political areas benefit from the failure by the media, how have the stakeholders handled the relationship? Why: what makes the parties hold the current positions? How: How are the parties prepared to solve the impasse? Methodology The review of evidence applied in search strings to peruse five journal databases. The researcher filtered various papers after identification based on the date of publication starting the last decade of the twentieth century. Identification also considered countries with experiences in conflict and telecommunications and media associated with political occurrences. The analysis yielded twelve papers for review. Experts supplemented the twelve papers. The researcher graded evidence based on a regular pattern, evaluating the degree and quality of empirical information as well as the quality of evaluation. Key Findings Evidence puts forward the need for caution when laying strategies using telecommunications and the media to promote peaceful international relations Technology and media interventions in conflict areas as well as fragile environments should come through innovative means as opposed to tried and tested alternatives The media plays a different role in promoting peaceful international relations in the developing world different from views held by many. The roles remain insufficiently understood and unexplored Future interventions from the media should include rigorous evaluations Gaps in Existing Literature Gaps exist in the current literature on the failures of telecommunication and media in promoting global peaceful international relations. In view of the same, various steps are necessary. Increased local level empirical information in the process of gathering data on the influence of the media and telecommunications among communities Expounded, comparative, quantitative research, highlighting change over time Studies covering new contexts and countries Enhanced analysis of broader contextual features as well as the interplay across various forms of media and telecommunications in promoting peaceful international relations Application of transparent methodologies with specific emphasis on qualitative aspects Additional explicit theories covering change besides highlighting assumptions Examination of evidence o the function of telecommunication and the media in hybrid spaces of governance where informal and formal governance interact Enhanced engagement with the current literature gathered from the media discipline revolving around the function of the media in affecting behaviour as well as detailed literature on information and communication technology within the precincts of development Recommendations Relatively little evidence exists in the current literature to reject or confirm claims that telecommunications and the media promote or prevent conflict. Interventions using the media in promoting peaceful international relations in fragile areas should come in form of innovative as opposed to the use of the same as tried and tested alternative. The role of the media in promoting a more peaceful international Relations A review of literature shows that most scholars hold the normative view that telecommunications and the media play a big role in promoting cooperation within post-conflict situations1. On the contrary, the review of literature found one author applying rigorous methodologies to examine this assertion. More evidence supports the position that the media plays a big role in promoting conflict (Acayo2). Other scholars use case studies to proof this position. Berman criticises evidence from this course. Berman states that the role played by the media in war-tone Rwanda was overstated. However, a dissertation by Acayo states that efforts to use the media in Taliban to promote peaceful international relations remain largely unsuccessful. Review of evidence found that most literature supports the existence a positive relationship between free press and development3. Chretien disputes the position taken by Boege that no reliable evidence exists to justify direct association. Furthermore, much of the reviewed literature concurs with the normative view that democracy and peaceful international relations benefit much from the freedom extended to the press as well as accessibility to public information. It is essential to consider informal institutions and realities in the localities according to most scholars making efforts during a post-conflict democratisation process (Acayo, Berman). Acayo for instance, highlights those post-conflict intervention efforts form the topics of debates in traditional public podiums in many African countries. The arenas include marketplaces and church services among many more. Conversely, Berman states that regulation of the media is a necessary step to promote peaceful international relations. Several papers apply different depths of methodological vigour in describing ways through which the media and telecommunications form channels for change and political choices4. Others such as Chretien caution that associating change to the media and telecommunication remains over-simplistic. Discussion Berman quotes from information discussed at a symposium held at a Harvard School of Public Health on October 5 2001. He states that the social media as omnipresent is a tool that may have two extreme effects on children. The author say that the television, the internet, music, movies and video games can twist the views of children on issues such as how they regard themselves, what they know about sex, drugs, and their bodies. On the other hand, the media could positively transform the lives of children on matters that relate to education, teachings on the effects of drug abuse, and violence among many more. Alvin aims at addressing teachers, parents, media owners, subordinate staff in school, and even government officials. In his article, the author explains that it is important for all those entrusted with the upbringing of children to appreciate the fact that social media is here to stay and cannot be avoided. They are however, expected to know how it either negatively or positively influences children. To proof the presence of media, Filippova5 notes that ninety-nine percent of homes in the United States for instance have one of the forms of the media. Alvin goes ahead to reveal more statistics on the number of people who watch different events on the media. What Filippova as the cause that led to the symposium to address such pertinent issue as the power of the media as ever present has given is the problem. Quoting the September 11 terror attack in the US as the ignition key to the debate is not satisfactory. The author further dwells more on statistics that do not really expound on what are the likely solutions would be. Chretien puts forward that technology continues to mediatise the society. He uses this concept to postulate the theories of the influence of the media on the society and culture as whole. The article reviews other scholarly articles on the topic. The article says that the social media has developed to become an entity that dictates its own movement, actions and as such controls all aspects of humanity. The author states that the media and its process of expansion including its influence regarded as a double-sided action of high modernity that is independent and has logic. Similarly, the social media remains an integral part of the society and affects religion, communication, politics, work and family. The article also explains that the in most cases, these institutions carry out their activities through the said process. Therefore, the social media is omnipresent and indispensable. In referring the media as having its own logic, affecting the other institutions of life and facilitating social interaction, the article does great duty in linking the completely social life. However, it is not entirely true that the media has its own logic and it is very difficult for people to control it. The media can only relay what has been input. If it had its own logic then, it would regulate its own content in a manner that allows different groups to decode. Filippova asks the readers to reflect on how life was a decade ago in order to understand the effect that the media has had on them all over the world. Social media websites that include Twitter and Facebook have developed global conversations difficult to estimate some ten years ago. The authors of the article highlight the dominance of the social media in people’s lives today. The media gives people news, connectivity among friends and family members. Furthermore, the media influences people’s tastes and preferences and as such dictates their buying habits. This is associated with the impact of advertisement. Filippova explains that the strength of the media in this field felt through the creation of social media marketing. Daily Newspaper Circulation per 1,000 Inhabitants (NEWSPCIR)   1975 1980 1985 1990 1994             FREEDOM -.4745** -.6339*** -.4797** -.3638* -.3122* POLRIGHT -.5480*** -.6020*** -.4273** -.3673* -.2725 CIVIL -.5064*** -.5092** -.4388** -.2333 -.3527* In assessing the impact of the social media on people’s behaviour, the article illustrates the way the media has opened up on ways of communication. The forums provided by the social sites make people want to interact more. In this case, the people feel more connected to the world transforming the world it a global community. The authors however, do not bring out the negative impacts of the social media on communication when they respond to the questions on whether the social media is a good form of communication. People around the world including politicians have made the use of social media a common feature. The article says that more than sixty percent of the people around the world use one form of the social media or the other including Twitter and Facebook in addition to other social networking sites. Acayo documents in his article that a survey by the Pew Research Centre on the internet and American life project revealed that almost seventy percent of people who use the social media half of them were involved in political activities. Politicians to allow people to engage them post political thoughts on various walls. Conclusion Berman submits in the article that for over ten years the social media has had a huge impact on the lives of people. Lives have evolved ever since the social media began expanding rapidly. Old friends can easily reconnect and people make new friends as well as share information from across the world. These occurrences could never be possible without the social sites such as Twitter and Facebook. The author states that the social media has positively influenced the society. The media has made people more open about their private lives than before. The users have exploited the freedom provided by the social sites as they post anything they feel without restrictions. However, they do not realize that such action makes their private life no longer hidden. Anything done online or in the internet is never private. This has led to many other negative effects. Bibliography Acayo, C. (2004). The Print Media and Conflict Resolution in Northern Uganda. African Journal on Conflict Resolution, 4(1), 27-43. Berman, E. (2008). Democratizing the Media. IILJ Emerging Scholars Paper 7 New York. Boege, V. (2008). On Hybrid Political Orders and State Formation in the Context of ‘Fragility’. Management, 3(8), 21. Chretien, J. P. (1995). Rwanda, les Medias du genocide (Collection “Hommeset societies”) (p. 406). Karthala. Filippova, O. (2007). Anti-Orange Discourses in Ukraine’s Internet: Before the Orange Split. Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, 23(1). Read More