Conflict Coverage and the Role of the Media

Abstract

The coverage of conflicts in the Georgian media is an issue on which critical opinions and appropriate recommendations have been heard from experts for years, however, the fact is that the current situation is thought-provoking.

In many cases, apart from rare exceptions, the Georgian media covers events that do not provide a complete picture regarding the conflict regions.

The audience does not have full and whole information about what is happening in the occupied regions, what is the attitude of the state or international organizations in relation to these regions.

One of the reasons of the problem is that it is not taught as a main subject in higher education institutions, except for rare cases. Consequently, journalists do not have appropriate theoretical and ethical education in case of reporting it.

Researching/teaching of peace and conflicts began a systematic form in the second half of the twentieth century. For example, in 1957, the Journal of Conflict Resolution was established at the University of Michigan, and the Center for Research of Conflict was founded in just two years. Also in 1959, the Oslo Peace Research Institute was established, and in 1964 - the Journal of Peace Research. It was during this period that an article on the existence of "positive" and "negative" ideas of peace was written by Johann Galtung, and one of the first articles in peace research, Teaching Peace and Conflict: A Basic Guide to Academics and Interdisciplinarity by Hermann Schmitt. Although the systematic study of peace and conflicts has been active since the second half of the twentieth century, one of the first undergraduate modules in the direction of teaching peace and conflicts was created in 1948, in the United States, at the University of Manchester.

The academic discipline of conflict analysis and peace studies is gradually developing in Georgia, therefore, it is very important in this process to correctly assess the role of the media in conflict coverage and to follow the education system of the developed countries of the world.

In this process, it is also important to determine the purpose of teaching, in particular, what purpose the research or teaching process serves, what specific problem it aims to critically analyze and solve. What results can be received in the direction of professional growth.