Peace journalism: How Thai journalism applied it: A case study of violent conflict in the Southern border provinces

Transcription

1 Peace journalism: How Thai journalism applied it: A case study of violent conflict in the Southern border provinces Walakkamol Changkamol cwalak@gmail.com Abstract This paper focuses on the role of newspaper in relation to a specific ethnic conflict in the south of Thailand that was selected as a case study. The main objective was to explore the news coverage of the violent conflict to find out how the conflict was covered by the Thai news media. The content analysis involved 316 news and non-news articles about the violent events in southern Thailand from six major newspapers during The sampled newspapers represented three main targeted audiences: two quality, two popular and two English-language newspapers. Galtung s peace journalism model was adapted into the construction of the coding sheet in this study as the framework of analysis. The findings revealed that the newspapers tended to report what had happened and the visible effects of the violence, rather than the invisible and cultural effects. The traditional news values and reporting style that place emphasis on timeliness and obvious impacts were the causes of the lack of depth in the reportage. In terms of language, emotive, demonizing and victimizing words were frequently used in the news. In a comparative analysis, the vernacular newspapers reported the events in emotionalized and dramatized ways, while the English-language papers used a more neutral tone. However, both types of newspapers relied mainly on official and government sources for news. Keywords: peace journalism, Southern border provinces, conflict, Thailand, Thai journalism

2 1. Introduction Conflict and peace, crucial components of social change, play a dynamic part in all societies. In many cases, such as after Bosnia s civil war, the media s provision of public forums for communication and dialogue have proved useful in conflict management and the peace settlement processes. As a prominent tool of communication, the media can play a role as a forum for dialogue and deliberation, with the aim of contributing to a reduction in conflict and the formulation of peace and consensus. This does not mean that journalists should not report conflict or violence, but rather, they should try to report the events in different ways and take a broader approach to reporting conflict (Lynch & Galtung, 2010; Lynch & McGoldrick, 2005). For example, the media must explain violence while avoiding the use of emotive or demonising language, and instead, shine a light on the causes and effects of the violence, both visible and invisible. Conversely, the media can also serve as a destructive agent, as an opponent of the peace process, by promoting hatred, fear and violence: this type of journalism is referred to in this thesis as war journalism. Examples of war journalism include most of the western media reporting of the events of 9/11, the Iraq war and the war in Afghanistan (Lynch & Galtung, 2010; Lynch & McGoldrick, 2005). This paper examines the role of the news media in peace processes through the analysis of media coverage. It focuses on a specific case study: coverage of a violent conflict between the central Thai government and the Malay Muslim separatist movement in the southern border provinces of Thailand, known as the Deep South or lower south. The Deep South of Thailand includes three provinces, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, in addition to parts of Songkhla province. ( Pattani refers to a modern Thai province and to one of the seven principalities or hua mueang into which Bangkok divided the historic Malay Sultanate of Patani in the 16th century (Montesano and Jory, 2008: xiii) and Patani refers both to that historic sultanate and to the wider area that it once ruled, which includes territories today divided administratively into the Thai provinces of Yala, Narathiwat, Pattani and adjacent parts of Songkhla (Montesano and Jory, 2008: xiii)). Historically, this is approximately the region ruled by the former Sultanate of Patani2. More than 80 per cent of the population are Malay Muslims, who are distinct from the majority of Thais in many respects. Ethnicity, religion and language make them more culturally similar to ethnic Malays, particularly in Kelantan, where the dialect is similar (Chalk, 2001; Che Man, 1990; Pitsuwan, 1982; Thomas, 1975; Virgoe, 2008). Although there is a large and growing body of literature on peace initiatives worldwide, the role of the media has until recently been ignored (Allen and Stremlau, 2005; Wolfsfeld, 2004). Recent scholarship in conflict and peace communication has paid more attention to the role of the media (for example Kempf, 2007; Lee & Maslog, 2005; Ross, 2007; Shinar, 2002; Shinar, 2007; Wolfsfeld, 2004). These studies tend to assume that news media, in their role as both opinion leaders and seekers and disseminators of information, could be a crucial part of all processes of peace settlement and conflict resolution. However, conflicts differ in terms of background, level of violence, stakeholders and media coverage; therefore, there should be further study of different events and regions. In addition, the media are a product of the entire society, and they are constrained by political, economic and cultural factors that cause the media in different societies to have different roles and functions in the peace process and conflict resolution. To fill the gap in the empirical studies of the role of media in covering conflict using peace journalism theory, this research explores and examines the news media roles and influences on peace settlement and conflict resolution using the print news coverage of the Deep South conflict as a case study. This study adds to the significant body of research about the Thai conflict and distinguishes itself by focusing on the role of the news media. The main objective was to explore the news coverage of the violent

3 conflict to find out how the conflict was covered by the Thai newspapers. The three following specific research questions were developed: 1. What are the dominant indicators of war and peace journalism reported in the coverage of violent conflict? 2. What is the extent to which the newspapers are giving priority to reportage of the conflict and is there any difference among the three groups of newspapers? 3. Is there a relationship between a war or peace journalism frame and: a. newspaper types b. story categories? The study examines the role of the print news media because it is the only news media that is free from government control in terms of ownership. The content analysis employed to be a method in this study, is discussed in the next topic. 2. Methods The content analysis process involved the study of coverage about the events that happened in southern Thailand s conflict during 2008 (1 January to 31 December). The coverage considered was of two types: news (both on the front and subsequent pages of the newspapers) and non-news stories (including scoops or special reports, opinion pieces, editorials and features). Six major national newspapers were included in the study and represented three main targeted audiences: two quality, two popular and two English-language newspapers. The two quality newspapers selected were Matichon and Post Today, the two popular newspapers were Thairath and Daily News, and the two English-language dailies were Bangkok Post and The Nation. There were 1,521 pieces of news and non-news collected, and by using the sampling method of a stratified, systematic sample with a random start (Babbie, 1998, 196), about 20 per cent (316 articles) were selected from the whole population for further study. Galtung s (1998) original peace journalism model, which was elaborated by Lynch & McGoldrick (2000), was adapted into the construction of the coding sheet in my study as the framework of analysis. The coding sheet contains two parts: basic analysis, which includes newspapers names, page locations and article categories; and content analysis, which includes five variables. The first variable is overall content, which, ideally, should be rounded and in-depth, not just reporting only the things that could be obviously seen by journalists. The second is language, which involved the coding of some types of words and language used in news reporting that might be construed as war journalism. The third variable is source analysis, which gauges whether the range of sources used by journalists in reporting conflict and violence is likely to ensure that a broad viewpoint is communicated through the media coverage. For example, journalists should not rely solely on quotes from elite sources or people who can provide only one side of the story, but, if possible, quotes from ordinary people, victims and suspects should also be included. The last variable is the main focus of the stories. 3. Findings There were six main points summarized from the content analysis. 3.1 The general role of the newspapers on violent conflict reporting reflects the media s glare concept Considering the statistical results, especially about the overall content, the main focus and news sources, the tendency was for most of the study samples to be considered war journalism. Content about visible effects was mainly reported in the sampled news stories, while invisible effects, causes and peace initiatives were neglected by the news media. Content about visible effects was mainly reported in the sampled news stories, while invisible effects, causes and peace initiatives were neglected by the news media. The examples of visible effects were people killed and wounded, and material damage. Focusing only on these types of elements is regarded as one of attributes of war reporting. Peace journalism includes the information related to

4 causes of the violence, peace initiatives and invisible effects, such as personal trauma and damage to the society or culture. Two-thirds of all samples focused on reporting the violent event itself, rather than paying attention to social impacts, legal related issues or peace movements. Analysis of news sources showed that the majority of the samples relied on onesided sources, especially government agencies, politicians or public figures, rather than general public, people who are affected by the violence events and suspected perpetrators. 3.2 The southern conflict was mainly reported in sensational and emotional ways Emotive, demonizing and victimizing language that is characteristic of war reporting was heavily used in the sample news stories. Emotive language, which leads a report to be more dramatic and exaggerated than the real events, was often included in the coverage on the southern violence. Samples of emotive words used in the southern violence news were massacre, strife-torn region and horrific killing. Demonizing language reflects a negative or prejudiced view of one group in a conflict, for example, cruel Muslim, radical Muslim, the southern bandit and the southern terrorist. Victimizing language focuses on the bad things (such as torture, stabbing and life sacrifice) that one group of people have done to another without explaining how this can be dealt with. The three different types of negative language used in the news reporting to attract readers attention made the southern conflict coverage too dramatic, colorful and emotional. 3.3 Hard news stories are more likely to be classified as war journalism than the other types of newspaper content Peace journalism focuses on information related to violent events and their effects without forgetting to include information about the causes of, and solutions to, the violence, and the peace movements that encourage resolution. Overall, that type of comprehensive coverage was not evident in the hard news stories; more than half of these stories focused on violent events and very few devoted space to other kinds of information. The non-news categories were more likely than hard news to be framed as peace journalism because the non-news articles were mainly focused on solutions or analysing the causes and social impacts of the violence. Thai-style news writing devotes space to the event narrative and facts, rather than allowing the journalists to convey their analysis and more in-depth information. Hard news very rarely contains information that takes more time to find out and analyse, such as causes, invisible effects or even solutions. On the contrary, scoops and special reports allow journalists more time to investigate and seek more in-depth information on the event, so more aspects of the conflict and violence are presented more frequently in this kind of article. The nature of editorials is to represent the standpoint of the newspaper. There is a process of brainstorming all ideas, facts and comments from editorial staff and from the news archives, so editorials have a very clear purpose, which is to present a solution to a problem. Opinion pieces that present an author s viewpoint are also not written on a daily basis, so the writer has more time to investigate and gather ideas to report some interesting point to the reader. Features have a more relaxed writing style, in which emotive language and a specific focus on some human interest issue seems to lead to coverage of the invisible and social impacts of the violence, not just the visible effects. 3.4 English-language newspapers showed signs of peace journalism more than the vernacular newspapers The results showed that English language newspapers are more likely to exhibit peace journalism than the popular and quality Thai-language newspapers. The overall findings of the content variables by newspaper showed that there were statistical differences between the English-language and vernacular newspapers on their reporting of causes, invisible effects and solution-oriented. Both the English-language and vernacular newspapers in Thailand are now owned by Thai corporations and have Thais working as the majority of their employees and journalists. However, the English-language papers adopt and practice a

5 style of concise news writing with less emotional headlines derived from quality foreign media rather than using the long and narrative news-writing style of the Thai language newspapers. It could be said that the two indicators, reporting causes and invisible effects, which show statistically significant differences between the two groups of newspapers, are the factors that need more analytical work by journalists. One of the reasons for the two important indicators of peace journalism not being present in the vernacular Thai newspapers is that the reporting style of Thai newspapers focuses only the routine news events. The structure of news writing in Thai newspapers is also just a description of the event and outer surface with no further analysis or investigative information contained (McCargo, 2000). In addition, the Thai language newspapers, to some extent, are concerned with a competitive market. They compete with other vernaculars to cover as much as they can of the daily routine events and the political and other human-interest issues, which leave them less time and fewer workers for investigative and analytical news reports. The vernacular papers tightly align themselves with the emotion and perception of the mass audiences who use the Thai language, so they tend to report the event with their own ties and feeling for the community as part of it. The English-language newspapers, in contrast, have chosen their standpoint as high quality media professionals and target the upper-middle-class and academic audiences (Hirunrak, 2000; Treerat & Chaiwat, 2004). 3.5 The voiceless and the powerless sources were not often considered as news sources One of the crucial qualities of peace journalism is writing people-oriented stories (Galtung, 1998; Lynch & McGoldrick, 2000). The peace journalism concept suggested that news reporting must focus on the suffering of everyone, including women, the aged and children, and giving the voice to the voiceless (Galtung, 1998). In contrast, the findings of the news source analysis showed that the sampled news stories focused only on one-sided sources of information. The main group of news sources were prime ministers, ministers, politicians, army leaders, police, state officers and business people. However, a tendency to use elite sources instead of ordinary people or victims reflected the prominent working style of the mainstream media generally, not only in Thailand. There is a large amount of literature from the last four decades about the problem of journalists focusing only on the official sources in many fields of reporting, including political, economic, environmental and conflict/violence news (Lee & Maslog, 2005; Lee, Maslog & Kim, 2006; McCargo, 2000; Sigal, 1973; Tuchman, 1978). 4. Conclusion Overall, the study found that there were too much reporting on visible effects related to the southern violence, which means that the readers miss out on learning about the real root causes and the invisible effects of the violence. The analysis of news sources revealed that the content presented in the news coverage relied on a few leading people and elites, for example, the prime minister, government officers, army chiefs and leading academics. The character of war journalism was reflected in the analysis of sampled news coverage, especially in the overuse of emotive, demonizing and victimizing words. Such language use in news reporting caused the southern conflict to be reported in sensational and emotional ways. Comparing the hard news stories and the other kinds of news content (for example, features, opinion pieces and editorials), the hard news was more likely to be classified as war journalism than the other types of stories. The lack of investigative reports was another significant problem related to the messages being sent by the media about the southern violence. 5. Acknowledgement This paper was excerpt from my doctoral thesis at School of Journalism and Communication, the University of Queensland,

6 Australia. I would like to acknowledge my supervisors, Associate Professor Dr. Pradip Thomas, Dr. Zala Volcic and Dr. Folker Hanusch, for their advice, continuous support and patient. Without them this research would not have been possible. 6. References Allen, T., & Stremlau, N. (2005). MediaPolicy, peace and state reconstruction. In O. Hemer & T. Tufte (Eds.), Media&Glocal Change: RethinkingCommunication for Development (pp ). Goteborg: Nordicom. Babbie, E. (1998). The practice of social research (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. Chalk, P. (2001). Separatism and Southeast Asia: The Islamic Factor in Southern Thailand, Mindanao and Aceh. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 24(4), Che Man, W. K. (1990). Muslim Separatism: The Moros of Southern Philippines and the Malays of Southern Thailand. Singapore: Oxford University Press. Galtung, J. (1998). Media: Peace Journalism. Retrieved 10 January, 2006, from cejournalism.htm Hirunrak, D. (2000). Gaan jad gaan Thurakij nang-seu-pim (Newspaper Business Management). Bangkok: Ake Pim Thai. Kempf, W. (2007). Peace Journalism: A Tightrope Walk Between Advocacy Journalism and Constructive Conflict Coverage. Conflict&Communication Online, 6(2). Retrieved from Lee, S. T., & Maslog, C. C. (2005). War or Peace Journalism? Asian Newspaper Coverage of Conflicts. Journal of Communication, 55(2), Lee, S. T., Maslog, C. C., & Kim, H. S. (2006). Asian Cconflicts and the Irag War: A Comparative Framing Analysis. The International Communication Gazette, 68(5-6), Lynch, J., & McGoldrick, A. (2005). Peace Journalism. Gloucestershire: Hawthorn Press. Lynch, J., & Galtung, J. (2010). Reporting Conflict: New Directions in Peace Journalism: University of Queensland Press. McCargo, D. (2000). Politics and the Press in Thailand. London: Routledge. Pitsuwan, S. (1982). Islam and Malay Nationalism: A Case Study of the Malay- Muslim of Southern Thailand. (Doctor of Philosophy), Harvard University, Massachusetts. Ross, S. D. (2007). Peace Journalism: Constructive Media in a Global Community. Global Media Journal: Mediteranean Edition, 2(2), Retrieved from /issues/9.%20Ross.pdf Shinar, D. (2002). Cultural Conflict in the Middle East: the Media as Peacemakers. In E. Gilboa (Ed.), Media and Conflict: Framing Issues, Making Policy, Shaping Opinion (pp ). Ardsley, NY: Transnational Publishers. Shinar, D. (2007). Democracy, Development, Peace and Communication: An Overview of their Roles and Interaction. Global Media Journal: Mediteranean Edition, 2(1), Retrieved from 07/DovShinarWordComplete6.pdf Sigal, L. V. (1973). Reporters and officials: The organization and politics of newsmaking. Lexington, Mass: D. C. Heath. Thomas, M. L. (1975). Political Violence in the Muslim Provinces of Southern Thailand. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Treerat, N., & Chaiwat, T. (2004). Krong saang talaat lae gaan gam gab doo lae nangseupim nai pratat thai (Market structure and regulation of newspaper in Thailand). Bangkok: Thailand Research Fund.

7 Tuchman, G. (1978). Making News: A Study in the Construction of Reality. London, New York: Free Press. Virgoe, J. (2008). Thailand's Southern Fix. Open Democracy News Analysis Retrieved 20 November 2008, from Wolfsfeld, G. (2004). Media and the Path to Peace. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.