Media, Peace and Conflict Studies

Rethinking visuals: Understanding discursive reformulation of visuals to inform jeace journalism Kurzfassung: Geläufige Definitionen des Friedensjournalismus sind unzureichend, um die Implikationen der 'offenen' Natur visueller Inhalte in ihrer vollen Tragweite zu erfassen. Die normativen Diskussionen beschränken sich auf den expliziten Gehalt der Abbildungen und ver-nachlässigen die Wichtigkeit ihrer impliziten Bedeutung. Der Aufsatz analysiert eine Fotostrecke, die unter dem Titel Liberated in the Hin-dukush im Foreign Policy Magazin erschienen ist und identifiziert anhand dieser Fallstudie, wie ein gegebenes Medienprodukt zwar (und sei es auch nur unbeabsichtigt) den Beschreibungen für Friedensjournalismus entsprechen kann, seine kontextuelle Bedeutungszuschrei-bung jedoch diesem Inhalt entgegengesetzt ist. Der Aufsatz argumentiert dafür, dass die Normen des Friedensjournalismus überarbeitet werden müssen, um der Subtilität der diskursiven Assimilation von – insbesondere visuellen – Medieninhalten gerecht zu werden. Abstract: Current definitions of peace journalism are inadequate to take on the full implication of the 'open' nature of visual content because normative discussions are restricted to explicit content of visuals while not underlining the importance of their implicit meaning. Analyzing a photo feature showing empowered Afghan women called Liberated in the Hindukush published in the Foreign Policy magazine as a case study, the article identifies how the particular media product in question fits existing descriptions of (if only, 'accidental') peace journalism but its contextual re-deployment of meaning is contrary to its content. The article argues that the norms of peace journalism need to be revised to account for the subtlety of discursive re-appropriation and re-assimilation of media content, especially visuals.

Using the chapters of the edited volume Communication and Peace: Mapping an Emerging Field, the article points out the shared interpretative repertoires of the contributions to build a broader case for commonalities within the diverse field of communication related disciplines and practices, which share the goal of building/making peace.
Furthermore, the article differentiates communication disciplines according to the narrative relationship with reality of the cultural texts they deal with, categorizes them according to their functions of symbolic creation and symbolic-creating-chronicling and charts them according to their contiguous relationship with peacebuilding/making as a
way to unify the field of communication and peace.

The article argues that through explorations of differing identity formation among journalist groups according to socio-cultural contexts, Peace Journalism has to test the applicability and acceptability of its normative frameworks in different settings. The article identifies lessons Peace Journalism can include from other academic sub-fields to understand the professional life-worlds of journalists in post-conflict societies. The study proffers a meso-level investigation framework of journalists’ awareness of and negotiation with the circulation of ‘flaks’, ‘frames’ and ‘myths’ through the ‘feedback loop(s)’ they work within and re-categorizes micro-level findings from a study conducted in Kenya with this meso-level framework as an illustration.

The presentation at 'On the Image Conference' held at University of California, Berkeley between October 30-31, 2015 summarised findings from in-depth research interviews held with 20 Afghan photojournalists about the particular socio-economic and cultural conditions they face in their day to day work. The findings were categorised according to the different 'flaks and rewards', 'myths' and 'frames' that the Afghan photojournalists self-identified as part of the  'feedback loop' of their profession in the particular context of Afghanistan as a post-conflict society with a historically, culturally and religiously constituted antagonistic relationship with images.

Abstract: This article explores media self-reflexivity as understood within Peace Journalism (PJ) in the case of photojournalists and photojournalism. Carrying forward the discussion started by Allan (2011) for research into 'peace photography' to be extended to 'tacit, unspoken rules' underlying photojournalistic images, the article shows, through two examples of mainstream news images, how photojournalists can and may break from diktats of 'news values' to advertently or inadvertently critique the myths of the very practice they function within. Such self-reflexive, synecdochic images which display media's own role in covering conflict are examples from which PJ can take lessons for a new visual grammar where visual peace journalism is understood to not only 'expose the untruths' behind propaganda but also expose the truths behind how such propaganda is reified by the media.

Kurzfassung: Der vorliegende Aufsatz untersucht die friedensjournalistische Selbstreflexivität im Falle von Photojournalisten und des Photojournalismus. In Fortsetzung der von Allan (2011) angestoßenen Diskussion darüber, dass die ‚friedensphotografische' Forschung die ‚stillschweigenden, ungesagten Regeln' untersuchen sollte, die dem photojournalistischen Bildaufbau zugrunde liegen‚ zeigt der Aufsatz anhand zweier Beispiele von mainstream-Pressephotos, wie Photojournalisten dem Diktat der ‚Nachrichtenwerte' entgehen können um die Mythen des Praxisfeldes innerhalb dessen sie operieren bewusst oder unbewusst zu hinterfragen. Solche selbstreflexiven, synekdotischen Bilder, welche die Rolle der Medien in der Konfliktberichterstattung darstellen, sind Beispiele, aus denen der Friedensjournalismus Lehren für eine neue visuelle Grammatik ziehen kann, die visuellen Friedensjournalismus nicht nur im Sinne einer ‚Entlarvung der Unwahrheiten' hinter der Propaganda versteht, sondern auch die Wahrheit aufdeckt, wie eine solche Propaganda von den Medien reifiziert wird.

Based on thematic findings from qualitative interviews (Guest et al. 2011) with 20 Afghan photojournalists in September-October, 2014, this paper contextualizes some of the key findings from the data to critically evaluate the opportunities and obstacles that Peace Journalism (PJ) faces in a conflict-affected society like Afghanistan. A growing body of research suggests journalistic practice differs in its various geo-cultural iterations across societies. Photojournalism in Afghanistan thus serves as an example in extremis of such particularities of journalistic practice – both in its socio-cultural factors as well as a conflict-affected society. It is a society where photographic images have over the last century, (Dupree, 2002; Edwards, 2006), under the Taliban (Rawan, 2002; Murray, 2012; Afghan Box Camera Project, 2016) and in the present (Smith, 2011: 30), been marginalized because of socio-cultural and religious factors. Also, Afghanistan remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist (Global impunity Index, CPJ report, 2016) while many “hundreds of millions of dollars” have been expended in media development and journalistic capacity building programmes in the country since 2002 (Cary, 2012: 24). Utilizing a cross-disciplinary theoretical framework of locating  particular ‘motivations’, ‘myths’, ‘flaks’, and ‘frames’ circulating in the ‘feedback loop’ of journalistic practice in a socio-cultural and politico-economic setting, the current study assesses the sociological aspects of photojournalism in Afghanistan to see firstly whether PJ is acceptable to Afghan photojournalists and secondly whether the normative framework of PJ is practically adoptable for working photojournalists in Afghanistan.

In this article, I seek to inform Peace Journalism (PJ) education and training in conflict-affected countries in particular. Based on a case study of the professional experiences of Afghan photojournalists, I offer insights into the acceptability and adoptability of PJ practice by journalists from conflict-affected countries. I present six key findings of a larger study on Afghan photojournalists in this article and discuss the lessons they hold for PJ training in conflict-affected countries. In sections 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, I provide some important theoretical, contextual and methodological background. In section 6, I discuss three professional adversities faced by Afghan photojournal-ists and evaluate the obstacles that implementation of PJ faces as a result of them. In section 7, I describe one professional motivator for Afghan photojournalists and discuss the opportunity it presents for PJ adoption. In

There is a historical refusal to acknowledge and recognize that Black Identity Matters (BIM), and the Western dominant narrative has particularly focused its lens on Black women to commodify, devalue, diminish, detract from, disavow and deny them. As a result of a violent premise to its foundation and a refusal to acknowledge and reconcile its violent history at institutional and individual levels, the U.S. has continued a trajectory of violence toward citizens of non-White-European descent in general, and Black people in particular and Black women specifically. This study was in support of an inquiry into the effects of Cultural appropriation used as a control mechanism for continued, Direct, Cultural and Structural violence on people of color, Black people in general and Black women specifically. Evidence has shown that in order to support a false narrative of White European superiority that dominates U.S/Western societies and influences much of the world, a system of devaluation of people of color was structured and legally, culturally and violently sanctioned. The research determined that in the new millennium and particularly within the tenure of the first African American President of the United States, cultural appropriation in the " garden variety " forms are rampant. However, certain appropriations of people of color, and specifically of Black women go beyond imitation and consumption of assets that have a " cultural " flavor. To ensure a false narrative that dominates, women of color and specifically Black women have been and still are vilified, devalued, subjected to unmatched scrutiny and their virtue continually set oppositionally to, compared to and/or contrasted to White-European notions of beauty that are hypocritical. At the same time Black women are devalued, women of non-Black African descent are encouraged by the narrative and the media to mine Black and other women of color for culturally, aesthetically and ethnically specific assets. Appropriation has reached new levels of egregiousness. So beyond the pale are these acts of ethnic appropriation that " Cultural Appropriation " is not sufficient to define them. The most egregious acts of appropriation encompass a totality which is used to falsify identity and make false claims to heritage and legacies. Thus, the author has determined that Cultural Aesthetic Ethnic Appropriation (CAEA) is more accurate nomenclature for these new demonstrations of an antiquated colonialist mentality which also sought to strip Black women of their individual and collective identities. The purpose of this study is to: 1) trace the history of imaging and devaluation of people of color (to a limited extent), Black people in general and Black women specifically, 2) show how " history " is a form of media 3) show that CAEA has modern correlations to the period of colonialist enslavement of Africans and their descendants and show that CAEA is a new insidious form of colonialism that attempts to define or redefine Black womanhood as previous colonialist forms of enslavement, thus CAEA is " a new colonialist script " 4) show that CAEA is supported and promoted by individuals and modern forms of media and that they create unequal economic opportunities for appropriators, while at the same time deny economic opportunities to the " sources " being appropriated, 5) explore the impacts of a history of " beauty hypocrisy " and devaluation of