Academics Materials

Academic Influence on Conflict Reporting

Academis’s role in conflict reporting

 Academia also has the power to influence the media, in terms of conflict reporting, in a number of ways (although its power is generally weaker than the other major actors). When reporting on conflicts, journalists usually have little background knowledge on the conflict, its causes and its participants.

Academic Influence on Conflict Reporting

They thus often turn to academics, or specialists in the field or in the region in question for information and analysis, who are seen as authoritative voices on those subjects and give credibility to media reports. Such experts may be interviewed on television, write columns or op-ed pieces in the newspapers and other periodicals. Specialists that prove to be popular may be called upon again, becoming regular contributors to the media. Some may even cross over to the media on a more permanent basis.

Conflict reporting through the media

Academics may also use the media to draw attention to their studies, in the process influencing the conflicts the media choose to cover and how they cover them. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order by Samuel Huntington (1996), for example, has had a broad influence on the media and how it views conflicts in general.

It is seen by much of the media as a framework from which it can view and analyse Western clashes with the Islamic world. Mortality studies in the DRC that have shown previously unthinkable levels of conflict related death were brought to light through the media and did, fora time, manage to attract moderate levels of attention in the media to that largely neglected conflict reporting.

centreforelites

Leave a Comment

Recent Posts

PROPERTIES OR EFFECTS OF STATIC ELECTRICITY

This post aims to demonstrate and explain the properties and effects of static electricity, shedding…

2 weeks ago

Electric Discharge. How does it work?

Many of the everyday effects of electrostatics involve a charged object losing its charge and…

1 month ago

Experiment 2.2: Area Expansion of Solids

Area expansion of solids refers to the increase in the surface area of a solid…

2 months ago

Experiment 2.1:  Linear expansion of Solids

The increase in the length of a body resulting from being heated is known as…

3 months ago

Theories of Aging Fully Explained

Different disciplines have developed theories of aging due to the complex nature of aging process.…

4 months ago

New 2023 Zambia Education Curriculum Framework Is Here

The 2023 Zambia Education Curriculum Framework (ZECF) has been developed not only to provide guidance…

10 months ago