Media and Conflict Resolution

Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia16th October 2013

Onnik James Krikorian

Journalist, Photojournalist, Media Consultant and Trainer

http://www.onnik-krikorian.com

http://twitter.com/onewmphoto

http://www.facebook.com/onewmphoto

http://www.conflict-voices.net

http:www.facebook.com/conflictvoices

[email protected]


Media and Conflict Resolution

“When war is declared,

truth is the first casualty”

Arthur Ponsonby, Falsehood in Wartime, 1928


Nagorno Karabakh• 1994 ceasefire

• Approx 25,000 dead

• Approx 1 million refugees and IDPs

• 16 percent of Azerbaijan controlled by Armenian forces

• Border skirmishes and clashes, increase in sniper incidents. Over 3,000 dead since 1994 ceasefire

• New generations living without contact with the other side

• Conflict a political tool in Armenia and Azerbaijan

• Peace deal still elusive

• Threat of new war


Attitudes towards Resolution


Trust in the Media


Media Perpetuating Conflict?

[...] people are often inclined to consider their existing attitudes and beliefs to be true and filter the

news through this lens. Thus, they accept messages in order to maintain their original perceptions. […]

bias in the local media [...] serves as a means to fuel and perpetuate hatred. This is a role the media

has and continues to play with regards to the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh.

Armenian and Azerbaijani International News Coverage – Empirical Findings and Recommendations

for Improvement, Caucasus Resource Research Centers (CRRC)

http://epfound.am/files/mb_fg_report_finalized_edited_12.27.2008.doc


Media Perpetuating Conflict?

[A] negative context [is set] in the public consciousness, which hinders dialogue and mutual

understanding […] Without more accurate and unbiased information […] free of negative rhetoric

and stereotypes, Armenians and Azerbaijanis will continue to see themselves as enemies without

any common ground.

Armenian and Azerbaijani International News Coverage – Empirical Findings and Recommendations

for Improvement, Caucasus Resource Research Centers (CRRC)

http://epfound.am/files/mb_fg_report_finalized_edited_12.27.2008.doc


Attitudes in Armenia


Attitudes in Azerbaijan


Attitudes in Georgia


Alternative Narratives

Nowhere in the world can you find two groups of people closer to each other. That is why we often

have these stupid disputes between Armenians and Azeris. "This house is Armenian" or "this house is

Azeri." Or "this music is Armenian or Azeri." This is exactly because the two have so much in common.

[...] I normally say, and people don't like this, that Armenians are just Christian Azeris and Azeris are

just Muslim Armenians. That is how much they are alike.

Seymur Baycan, Re-arming the Caucasus, Al Jazeera English

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz47DkYn4Kk



We hear far too little of what I call this “third narrative” of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, a

narrative of peace. It spins the idea that the two peoples are capable of getting along fine, have lived

together in the past and, if politicians are able to overcome differences on the Karabakh conflict, can

live together in the future. International mediators are too timid to speak this narrative or feel that it is

not their business. The media in both countries suppresses it.

Thomas de Waal, senior associate in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment and

author of Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War

http://conflict-voices.net /conflict_voices_may_2011.html



Above: Azerbaijani Prisoner of War (PoW)

Right: Azerbaijani PoW and Civilian Hostages

Photos © Onnik Krikorian 1994




Another Alternative?

Throughout history, war has affected media, with conflict often creating an information void. In the 21st

century, media has begun to affect war more than ever before. Digital media technologies [...] have

increased communication and information dissemination in conflict settings [...]. These new tools can

be used to foment violence or to foster peace, and it is possible to build communication systems that

encourage dialogue and nonviolent political solutions.

Ivan Sigal, Global Voices Executive Director, Digital media in conflict-prone societies, Center for

International Media Assistance (CIMA)

http://cima.ned.org/publications/research-reports/digital-media-conflict-prone-societies


Global Voices

Global Voices is a community of more than 300 bloggers and translators around the world who work

together to bring readers reports from blogs and citizen media everywhere, with an emphasis on voices

that are not ordinarily heard in the mainstream media.

Global Voices is translated into more than 30 languages by volunteer translators, who have formed the

Lingua project. Additionally, Global Voices has an Advocacy website and network to help people speak

out online in places where their voices are censored.

We also have an outreach project called Rising Voices to help marginalized communities use citizen

media to be heard. Technology for Transparency examines the use of online tools in increasing

transparency and accountability globally.


Russia-Georgia War


Professional or Citizen Media?

Anyone who believes that all citizen media are objective and impartial is either mad or hasn't actually

read any citizen media. […] What's become very difficult is using citizen media to understand what's

actually happening on the ground. As we all know, some of the reports from both camps in the South

Ossetian conflict were likely manufactured and inaccurate. This sort of situation can get even more

complicated when there aren't impartial journalists on the ground.

Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices co-founder

http://www.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/13149/


Social Media Crossing Borders


http://conflict-voices.net

Caucasus Conflict Voices


Internet Use

Armenia 2011 Media Public Opinion and Preference Survey, Caucasus Resource Research Centers (CRRC)


Imaginary Cosmopolitanism

I study the ways new media shapes people's perceptions of the world. It's my fond hope that social

networks such as Facebook will help users broaden their perspectives by listening to a different set of

people than they encounter in their daily life. But I fear services such as Facebook may be turning us

into imaginary cosmopolitans.

[...]

Is Facebook a space for cross-cultural interaction? For fomenting reactionary hatred? Or is it primarily a

space for online interaction with our local, offline friends?

Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices co-founder, Does Facebook unite us or divide us?

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/03/zuckerman.facebook.global/index.html


Cyber Utopian or Skeptic?

The reason why the KGB wants you to join Facebook is because it allows them to learn more about you

from afar. It allows them to identify certain social graphs and social connections between activists.

Many of these relationships are now self-disclosed by activists by joining various groups.

Evgeny Morozov, author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom

http://www.rferl.org/content/interview_morozov_internet_democracy_promotion/2284105.html


The Media and ICT4D?

http://www.Elva.org


Questions & Discussion

[…] the internet is not magic; it is a tool. Anyone who wants to use it to bring nations closer together

has to show initiative, and be ready to travel physically as well as virtually. As with the telegraph before

it—also hailed as a tool of peace — the internet does nothing on its own.

The Economist, A cyber-house divided

http://www.economist.com/node/16943885?story_id=16943885

News & Politics

Media and Conflict Resolution