Are the Colombian Media Contributing to War or Peace? The Role of the News Media in Covering the Colombian Conflict

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Room 206 Ingraham Hall - 1155 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706

Presented by Presented by Tinker Visiting Professor of Journalism, Dr. Jesus Arroyave Cabrera

About the presentation: The media, as the main source of information on which public opinion is based, has been an object of interest for the various actors in a given conflict, in many cases as a tool to advance their own agendas. Extensive research on the relationship between media and conflict has shown that just as the media has contributed to exacerbating conflict and motivating war (Des Forges, 1999), it can also contribute to peace (Hamelink, 2015; Kempf, 2012; Shinar, 2007). Peace has certainly been an elusive ideal for Colombia. Since the outbreak of political violence in the late 1940s and the formation of the first armed groups in the 1950s, the political state has proposed various agreements, amnesties, clearance processes, negotiations and ceasefires with the different actors in the conflict, and more recently, calls for plebiscites to approve peace agreements, in an attempt to achieve this ideal. New media have played a key role in publicizing the facts of the conflict. For years, however, critics and opinion leaders have questioned the role of the media in peacebuilding. Using Galtung’s theoretical proposal as a category of analysis, this presentation will examine the role of the news media in covering the Colombian conflict.