In the globalized world we are living in, media has played a significant role in society. It has become such an integral part that many scholars have considered it a third pillar of government. Media has always played a significant role in the narrative building of a nation. It is one of those important mediums through which the general masses shape their opinions and perspectives. Media has the potential to aggravate any conflict and make it worse. Still, it also has the power to promote peace and work constructively in conflict management and resolution of violence. Therefore, every new technology has its pros and cons. As much as media plays a significant role in creating awareness, it also has its negative role.
Media and Conflict
Internationally and nationally, there are multiple examples where the media has played a significant role in either creating dissent/conflict or aggravating it further.
Rwanda – How Media Coverage Triggered Escalation
One of the early and most prominent examples of media playing an instrumental role in creating conflict is the 1994 Rwanda conflict.
A very famous Rwandan radio station, Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), had an amplifying role in inciting the Hutu community to kill the Tutsi community. The radio station was endorsed by an extremist magazine organization named Kangura, which was already running a hate campaign against the Tutsis. According to an expert and well-versed Rwandan journalist, the media played an aggravated role in the crisis apart from educational institutions and government offices. The RTLM used derogatory words for the Tutsi community by calling them insensitive words.
Another negative role that the local as well as global media played was the little to no broadcast of the genocide. No international media aired the live or any updates of the conflict, so the world does not know that the largest genocide of the world is happening. The local press also did not do transmissions on the ongoing genocide, thus identifying the negative role of media in the Rwanda genocide.
Indian DisinfoLab – How Media Can Contribute to Propaganda
Another pertinent example of the media’s negative role in creating conflict is the infamous case of Indian Chronicles, which was discovered by the EU DisinfoLab in 2019. The case made its rounds in international and national media.
The Indian Chronicles Saga revolves around the discovery of a 15-year-old covert operation of India to disseminate misinformation and disinformation regarding Pakistan across the globe. The operation began in 2005 and ended in 2019. It comprised more than 750 pseudo-media outlets spread across 117 countries and 550 above domains registered for this very purpose. Another striking thing about this operation is that it used the names of those journalists who have been dead for so many years.
Moreover, the operation used defunct organizations such as NGOs to promote their agenda. For example, the Canners International Permanent Committee was established in 1938 to revitalize the canning industry. The organization became dormant in 2007. The domain name of CIPC was later re-activated in 2016, and suddenly, the agenda of the organization shifted from advancing the canning industry to defaming Pakistan at the international level. The operation encompassed tarnishing the global image of Pakistan by highlighting its terrorism, human rights violations, minority rights, and other issues. This instance can be taken as a contemporary example of how any media propaganda can threaten a state’s national security.
Israel-Palestine – Genocidal Analysis
Israel-Palestine conflict is one of those major conflicts where media is playing a massive role in shaping the dynamics of it. Few Western media news channels are busy spreading their bias and advocacy for Israel. One of them is the British Broadcasting Channel (BBC). It is a state-owned broadcaster considered one of the most reliable and impartial news channels. Great Britain is one of the biggest advocates of Israel, and BBC is showing bias in their broadcasts by portraying Israel as innocent and Palestinians as terrorists.
The side of Israel is mainly portrayed by their president, Benjamin Netanyahu, their forces, e.g. IDF, and their state media. These three important authorities are generating hate and bias against the Palestinians by showing them as aggressors and killers of the innocent, and the international media is helping them in this. Unfortunately, the reality is the opposite of what they are showing.
It is with the help of social media that the world is witnessing the atrocities Israel is doing on Palestine. Otherwise, the international media is mostly showing the side of Israel except for Al-Jazeera. It is the only international channel that is doing on-ground broadcasting of the Palestine genocide. Thus identifying the biases of media channels towards a genocide while picturing only one side of the story and neglecting the other part of it.
Pakistan – No-Confidence Motion
After the 2022 no-confidence motion of the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, Pakistan witnessed a shift in narrative from making Khan a hero to portraying him as a state enemy. Unauthentic and unclaimed information created a sense of frustration among the general public, eventually resulting in a pool of people coming to the streets and protesting in favour of Khan.
Punjab Group of Colleges – Rape Case
The role of media in creating conflict can be easily seen through the lens of the recent PGC case. The case epitomizes how the public can be easily deceived through propaganda campaigns and by playing psychological tricks. The recent case where a PGC student was allegedly raped has raised many questions regarding the authenticity of the media. While the students were adamant about finding justice for the girl, the government officials were bent on falsifying the allegations.
According to CM Punjab Maryam Nawaz, no case of rape has been reported. It is a defamation campaign run against the college. This whole narrative building of the Punjab government authorities aggravated many students, followed by a full closure of all the Punjab College campuses in one week to avoid more protests.
Media, in all ages, has always played a pivotal role in shaping the narratives and perceptions of a society. Simultaneously, media can create a conflict, spread propaganda, or help the government and civil society in conflict management. The abovementioned examples highlight how media can aggravate any conflict with its false narrative-building and propaganda campaign.
The example of Indian chronicles helps to understand how state machinery is actively involved in propaganda campaigns against their rivals while spending millions of dollars yearly on these campaigns. The PGC example shows the same role of government in building a narrative against a serious case and shifting the whole discourse in another direction. In conflicts like Israel-Palestine and Rwanda, media plays a critical role. With this medium’s help, the world knows the on-ground realities of a conflict. With media playing a biased and negative role, the dynamics of a conflict change. Thus, media has the potency to either create harmony in society or create division.
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The views and opinions expressed in this article/paper are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Paradigm Shift.
Minahil Baig is currently pursuing her master's degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from NUST. Her areas of interest include conflict management, defence studies, artificial intelligence, and modern warfare.