The main objective of this paper is to answer two separate questions: What are the roles played by media in conflict resolution or exacerbating conflicts across the globe? And how the influences of the media did contributed or exacerbate the war on Iraq and ethnic violence in Kenya that took place in the year 2007 after the election. Considering researches conducted concerning the media and conflict resolution, media and peace and media a tool of information that is also presumed to be the source of power, it is possible to justify the fact that media is the most significant tool, social agent and medium that has the greatest potentials in changing viewers and listener’s perception concerning the occurrences that take place today. Most people live in fear and desperation, therefore, they trust in what they see, hear or touch but above all, they believe in the media as a trusted entity in their lives that also give them hope. Governments, social organizations and communities have used the media to pass powerful information that helps transform the society and educate them in like manner. In this paper, the role of the media in promoting conflict or subduing it has been fully covered with various literatures analyzed.
Media being an important tool in the society, it is used by both terrorists and governments to instill perceptions to the viewers or listeners in the same way. Taking a case study on the research conducted on Iraq war, PIPA (Program on International Policy Attitudes)/KN (Knowledge Networks) conducted a research by probing the residents of Iraq on key beliefs and perceptions of US (United States) policy. It was learned that a large portion of the public has misperceptions that were demonstrably false. Another poll was conducted by PIPA/KN on whether Iraq participated in September 2011 attack, majority believed that Iraq did participate and some even had believed that they saw conclusive evidence of the same (Kuttab, 2007). However, United States intelligence said that there are no evidence that Iraq participated in 9/11 attack in US.
It became clear in February 2003 that one in five Americans had the same view that Iraq was involved in the September attack but majority believed that Iraq gave support to Al-Qaeda while the US intelligence community unsporting those claims. After the war in May, July and August 2012, Majority of the respondents believed that US had evidence that Saddam was supporting and working with Al-Qaeda, with administrative figures showing the purported meeting between the Iraqi officials and the Al-Qaeda without mentioning the direct involvement of Saddam in the meeting (Kuttab, 2007). The same were discredited by the US intelligence and even the fact that the US soldiers who arrived in Iraq and failed to find the weapons of mass destruction that were purported to be in Iraq.
In Kenya, after the election that was conducted in 2007, the media aired the whole process until the announcement of the results. Once the results we announced, the media stopped airing live certain events making the public to speculate on what was taking place in the country. This made the public to be anxious for more information whether false or true. The silence from the media contributed to the violence because the only available platform was now the radio stations that were ethnically steered (Hafez, 2003). Most communities were uneasy with each other and the keeping off of the media as a whole made the public believe that the government was using the media to steal election and this was later reputed because no one was able to substantiate those facts.
Educating the public after the post-election violence in Kenya led to reconciliation and forgiveness that led to the healing of those wounds that were created. The media was on the front end for steering peace and cohesion among the communities across the country with many now changing their perceptions of each other whether from the community that supported the re-election of the former president of the opposition leader (Hafez, 2003). In this way, the media contributed 60 percent of peace and cohesion among the members of the public. It was noted that truth Justice and reconciliation was conducted over the media with different communities participating on the same. Interviews and prayers that were conducted on the media helped in promoting peace and coherence.
The Iraq war in 2003 was exacerbated by several media houses across the US, Britain, and other parts of Europe. In US, television and radio stirred Public emotions with reports dubbed “Countdown Iraq” on MSNBC also “Showdown with Saddam” on CBS. In this case, they were clearly revealing pro-America biasness before and during war coverage. Robert Jensen and Greg Dyke criticized US for biasness in the coverage of the war in Iraq. There were no meaningful views from discussion in CBS, NBC, ABC and PBC without any facts being aired live (Kull et al., 2003). Those who were presumed to be against the war were given less or no coverage with majority of those who were being interviewed was pro-war. Sources of the interview were coded by name, nationality, occupation and position on war, however, 64 percent were pro-war and 71 of guests from US were in support of the war.
The British media on the other side had a stand in Iraq war. There were proponents and opponents of the war who were being interviewed before the war. The great confrontations were openly aired liv by Elite press (Kull et al., 2003). With the British army in Iraq, the headlines in the media was “Night of Terror” indicating the bombing of Bagdad market. When the statue of Saddam was brought down, the whole newspaper front pages in United Kingdom newspapers were filled with the same. The immediate impression of the media after several attacks undertaken by the US and British soldiers in Iraq was that the times and Independent portrayed the heroic images of US and British soldiers. The entire coverage was meant for a pro-war ideology to be adopted by the general public.
The German newspapers were also involved in changing the public opinion about the war on Iraq. France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Finland, Sweden Netherlands, Russia, Turkey and Belgium decided not to openly support US and Great Britain in the war against Iraq (Kull et al., 2003). In Contrast, the German press was pro-war and remained controversial to the stand taken by Germany as a nation. Papers like Frankfurter and Die Zeit accused Schroder of harming the good relation with the US by not supporting the war in Iraq. CDU sided with Bush openly making it the only media in German that was pro-war (Kull et al., 2003).
In Kenya, Local radio stations contributed tremendously to the inter-tribal conflicts where KASS FM was criticized for stirring the attacks on one community. However, the local television stations stopped airing the ethnic clashes and how the police were killing the civilians, the CNN, BBC and other international media were airing live the events taking place in Kenya. Those who were able to get access to BBC and CNN were giving false information to the public concerning the state of the nation at the time Kenya was in the middle of crisis. The government openly stopped all media stations from airing any event live in order to deny the citizens the state of affairs.
Immediately the US-led offensive was completed, there are internal effects of US-inversion on Iraqi press. Paul Bremer who is a US provisional coalition administrator issued an order on 10 June 2003 concerning the banning of media from publishing or broadcasting material for five different areas. The main objective was to achieve peace and unity rather than violence and civil disorder. These orders No. 14, No. 65, No. 66 were all invoked and the result were far reaching (Hafez, 2003). Media violators were arrested and charged in the court of law by the US. The main Pan-Arab satellite Al-Arrabiyeh and Al-Jazeera became permanent (Kuttab, 2007). The US sponsored peace initiative through newspapers that were translated into Arabic for the sake of Iraqi people. Since the public opinion contributes to the leadership and whether or not the country has to go for war, many western and Iraqi media stations have been used to bring peace and unity among the Iraqi citizens.
Kenya media composed of the televisions, radios and newspapers promoted peace in Kenya by preaching national cohesion and reconciliation across the country with inter-tribe visitation. It promoted the long desired peace that also led to the peaceful election conducted in the year 2013 in Kenya. The media brought the politicians, religious leaders, stake holders and the general public together through forums such as interviews, public meetings and peace promotions conducted in all television networks, radio and newspapers in Kenya.
Considering the analysis done on this paper, Germany and other countries seems not to have supported the war in Iraq but the media in Germany was independently in support for the inversion in Iraq. It implies that there is maturity for the non-involved countries in terms of the government, public opinion and the media. All these three develops in their own dynamics with the government targeting its own cause while the media on the other hand targets its own cause. In contrast, British and America were pro-war and the media had the freedom to be against the government stand as far as the Iraqi inversion was concerned. However, it seemed that the media and the general public in Britain and US seemed to have handed their trust to the government of the day without doing proper investigation to the claims by the government concerning Iraq. The media could investigate the claims before taking positions but this did not happen in these two countries. In Kenya, the media participated on bringing people together rather than scattering them. However, the media obeyed the government for not airing live the events taking place during the conflict.
References
Hafez, K. 2003. The Iraqi War 2003 in Western Media and Public Opinion: A case Study of the effects of military (None) Involvement in Conflict perception, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, 23. -25. <Online text book> accessed 18-Nov-2014.
Kull, S,. Ramsay, C., Subias, S., Lewis, E., Warf, P. 2003. Misperceptions, the media and the Iraq war. Available at: <http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/oct03/IraqMedia_Oct03_rpt.pdf> accessed 18-Nov-2014.
Kuttab, D. 2007. The media and Iraq: a blood bath for and gross dehumanization of Iraqis. Available at: < https://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/irrc-868_kuttab.pdf> accessed 18-Nov-2014
