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PAPER The Drum Beat - 24 - Ohio University - Media in Conflict Situations - Sri Lanka

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The Drum Beat - 24 - Ohio University - Media in Conflict Situations - Sri Lanka
Additional Information and Commentary - Please contact the student identified for a full copy of their paper.


By Samanthi Hewakapuge
International Student of Ohio University
July 1999
sh335392@oak.cats.ohiou.edu

5. The Role Of Media In Conflict Situations: With Special Reference To Ethnic And Terrorist Crisis In Sri Lanka

Introduction

The contemporary world is experiencing violence between ethnic groups, terrorists and incumbent governments. Media fulfils its prime objective by covering conflict situations and channeling it to their audiences. Thus, news media are no longer peripheral players on the global scene; they are important participants whose organizational patterns of behavior, values and motivations must be taken in to consideration in understanding national and international conflicts. With the advancement of new technologies, there is a faster and wider dissemination of news. With the multiple characters that media play, it is important to be aware of the role of media especially in an ethnic and terrorist crisis.

Theories

"Spiral of Silence" Theory of opinion formation-Noelle Neumann (1993). Cultivation Theory of Mass Media-repeated intense exposure to deviant definitions of "reality" of mass media leads to perception of that "reality" is normal-George Gerbner (1973)

Media Systems Dependency Theory-a three-way interaction among audiences, media and the larger social system-Ball-Rokeach and Defleur (1976)

The Role of Media

The role of media in a conflict situation is threefold. Creators - Media coverage might misinterpret the actual situation and the audience could be misled and that will impose harmful effects on the whole society.
Maintainers - Media might keep on reporting on the same incident and that will persuade people to react to the situation.
Controllers - Media would give passive messages and balance the incident with correct and proper information.

Sri Lankan Conflict and Media: Case Study

News articles were analyzed of a conflict situation that occurred in Sri Lanka, on January 25, 1998. The LTTE terrorists bombed the most sacred Buddhist shrine in Sri Lanka, which is situated in Kandy.
The fundamental features of the Sri Lankan media:
Mainly government owned till 1980's. Private Newspapers and tabloids used to exist. Due to the competition between government and non-governmental media channels, the government channels were pressurized to abandon their process of censoring security news and conventional formats of the programs. Private channels became very active in the field reporting all the "hot news".

Methodology & Findings

By analyzing news articles on this incident by three Sri Lankan newspapers (Internet editions). Daily News - a national newspaper, oven by the government, published messages from the government officials. Later appeared more non-bias news giving a chance to opposing views.

Sunday Times - a private newspaper, pro-opposition party, reported about the mass uprisings as aftermath of the incident.
Sunday Leader - a private newspaper, presented more balanced and critical analysis about the incident.

Limitations & Conclusion

None of the local language news media was accessible. By analyzing local news media a different conclusion might have arrived. It is evident that the different styles that news media use when reporting a conflict situation is due to ownership, organizational patterns, motivation of the journalists and the existing attitudes of the various media channels. Thus, in this instance media has acted in their threefold nature.