Media and conflict terms and concepts Flashcards
“Unity and brotherhood”
Message spread by Tito in order to prevent nationalism by Yugoslavian republics
1967 War
Six day war in which Israel fought off Arab countries and gained more land, tripling its territory, 400,000 more refugees (300,000 Palestinians and 100,000 Syrians)
Agenda setting
Cues via the media to determine what is important → what to think about
Al Jazeera effect
Project of Qatar to remake the world via international broadcasting – create a pan-Arab identity rather than individual identities with affiliate states
Appraisal theory of emotions
Idea that our appraisal (evaluation) of information causes an emotional response that is based on the stimulus
Arafat
Palestinian leader that won a Nobel peace for his work alongside Rabin (President of Israel) in the Oslo accords – the implementation of Palestinian rule in portions of the West Bank and Gaza strip and the removal of Israeli settlements in these areas
Balfour Declaration
Post WWI - Authored by the UK’s foreign secretary, this declared a home for Jews in Palestine but without violating civil or religious rights of non-Jews in Palestine
Bill Clinton
In 1995, Clinton visited Belfast and shook hands with Gerry Adams and appointed Senator George Mitchell to head the peace process in Ireland. Also involved in the attempted peace process in Israel-Palestine in 1993.
Blame Frame
Frame that creates the idea of us vs. them, devaluation of the other and distancing or shunning of them based on the idea that “they” are to blame. Precursor to hate frame and genocidal frame. Used by the media to portray a situation or particular group in a certain way in order to create or perpetuate conflict
Blanket protest
Protest begun on 14 September 1976 by a prisoner named Kieran Nugent who refused to wear the uniform of the common prisoner as he wanted to be seen as a political prisoner, the British government refused to recognise him as one. Sands chose to wear only a blanket instead. The IRA and INLA followed suit in protest of their treatment
Bosniaks
Muslims in Bosnia – were stereotyped by Serbians as terrorists due to their history of affiliation of mujahideen (a Muslim extremist group that fought on the side of the Bosniaks during the Bosnian war) – use of Hate Frame on the part of the Serbians
Bosnia
Republic in Yugoslavia where Croats, Serbians and Bosniaks coexisted with intermarriage, mixed race children, very little discontent until the death of Yugoslavian President Josef Tito in 1980 and the Kosovo conflict
Chetniks
Members of a Serbian nationalist guerrilla force that formed during World War II to resist the Axis invaders and Croatian collaborators but that primarily fought a civil war against the Yugoslav communist guerrillas, the Partisans.
Clicktivism
The use of social media and other online methods to promote a cause – low cost, low commitment, short attention span and “shelf life” e.g. Kony 2012
CNN effect
Idea that the development of 24-hour news has impacted states’ foreign policy and made ordinary citizens more involved in events across the globe, especially wars and humanitarian crises pressuring governments to act on these crises. Jacobsen criticises this, saying that it “misses the point”, shifting the focus from long term, cost effect efforts to short term emergency relief which gets attention and money quickly
Conditions for genocide
- Crisis - economic, war, famine, etc
- Malignant leadership
- Communication of prevalent blame/hate frames
Conformity
Idea that when people are in groups, they tend to conform in order to avoid ostracism. Leads to groupthink.
Croatia
Country in Yugoslavia which had citizens in Bosnia - when Bosnia declared independence, Croatia attempted a land grab in order to “protect their people” in Bosnia
Cyberwars
The use of computer technology to disrupt the activities of a state or organisation, especially the deliberate attack of communication systems by another state or organisation - move of the battlefield from the physical to new, modern platforms
Dirty protest
Carried out by IRA and INLA in protest of the treatment of Irish Republican prisoners. They refused to shower, wash or use toilet facilities, instead smearing faeces over the walls and living in their own filth
Edward Heath
Prime Minister of Britain during the “Troubles”, governed during Bloody Sunday and was targeted by the IRA for introducing internment in NI
Emotions
Result of appraisal - lead to action tendencies, result of stimulus
Emotions as Action Tendencies
Idea that emotions lead to tendency to certain actions associated with specific emotions - these can be stopped by cognitions and are affected by behavioural norms → i.e. emotion of anger leads to action tendency of destruction – in some societies this might be socially acceptable due to the prevalent norms there but not in others due to differing social norms
Epistemology
Study of knowledge
Ethnocentricity
News norm. Evaluating other peoples and cultures according to the standards of one’s own culture. How “they” impact “us”
Eugenics
The “science” of improving a population through controlled breeding to increase the occurrences of desirable heritable characteristics. Used during the holocaust to justify the killing of Jews
Framing
Portraying specific circumstances or groups of people in a particular way so as to create and perpetuate a given message
Framing biases
- Information misinformation - giving incorrect (or not totally correct) information
- Information omission - leaving information our
- Information distortion - giving information is a way that places emphasis on certain aspects and ignores others
Genocidal Frame
Blame frame (us vs. them, devaluing, focus on conflict, stereotyping) + hate frame (dehumanisation, solution to punish/isolate/control) + grand or noble case and sense of urgency created through “kill or be killed” mindset
George Bush
Got media to tow government line and used indexing to spread one message that the government wanted disseminated
Gerry Adams
Party President of Sinn Fein, issued statement with Nationalist MP John Hume stating that the people of Ireland had a right to self-determination
Group effects
- Identity/identification with certain groups - often created through a sense of what we are not
- Demarcation of social boundaries, differentiation from other groups
- Intergroup emotions, feeling real emotions for people who we don’t know but who are a part of “our” group
- Groupthink/conformity - weakening of personal autonomy and critical thinking to meet party line
- Adoption of systems, hierarchies and roles
Groupthink
Weakening of personal autonomy, independent critical thinking and a tendency to promote the ideas of the group, often stems from loyalty or desire for harmony. Theorised by Irving Janis
Hacktivism
Groups using computers to gain unauthorised access to data, those with a political stance believe that all information should be free, distrust authority and promote decentralisation
Hard power
Category of power, which relies on dominance and control in order to achieve goals
Hate frames
Blame frame (us vs. them, devaluing, stereotyping, focus on conflict) + dehumanisation + anticipation for more crisis caused by “them” → solution is to punish/isolate/control
Hezbollah
“Terrorist” group created after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, now more focused on providing government and social services, e.g. schools, hospitals, etc.
Hutu
One of the tribes in Rwanda, were originally oppressed by Belgian colonisers who then gave them positions of power in order to try and retain control during the struggle for independence. Extremists Hutu groups were suspected of shooting down the plane carrying the Rwandan and Burundi presidents due to dissatisfaction with the Arusha peace accords. Killed nearly 1 million Tutsi in ~100 days in 1994
Identity
Relates to questions like “who are we”? “where do we belong”? “to what groups do we belong”? Identity is socially constructed. Much of what makes us “us” is socially constructed and inherited
Imagined communities
Concept theorised by Benedict Anderson who proposes that they differ from real communities as they are not based on day-to-day interactions but rather belonging to a group e.g. nations
Intergroup emotions
The phenomenon whereby we feel real emotions for other members of our group
International broadcasting
One of the parts of public diplomacy
Iraq war
War beginning with the invasion of Iraq by the US in the name of the “war on terror”. Example of indexing by media
Islamic state (ISIS/ISIL)
“Terrorist” group that makes and uses their own media (and social media) to spread their message through the use of blame and hate frames. Through this, they have attracted 200,000+ Jihadists who believe the narrative that they are creating and spreading
Jimmy Carter
US president that brokered the peace agreement “Camp David Accords” where Israel and Egypt signed a peace agreement
John Hume
Nationalist MP that met with SF leader Gerry Adams to try and find common ground, they released a joint statement that the people of Ireland have a “right to national self-determination”
Joseph Goebbels
Nazi propaganda minister, had control over German media outlets and used these to disseminate messages with simple slogans, emotional appeals, messages he disseminated were ubiquitous and repetitious in order to get them to stick
Josip Broz Tito
President of Yugoslavia, was very against nationalism and so created the “unity of brotherhood”, lead the most effective resistance force against the Axis groups. Died in 1980 and left a leadership vacuum
Juvenal Habyarimana
Rwandan President whose plane was shot down over the Kigali airport and was the event that sparked the Rwandan genocide
Kosovo
Precursor event to the Bosnian war. Was where Milocevich came to power and exhibited this power. Was not a republic in Yugoslavia but the calls for republicanism lead to Milocevich punishing the Albanian population here and said that they were manipulating the population by having a higher birth rate.
Krystallnacht
Night two days after the shooting of a german diplomat by a Jewish man where Jewish businesses, homes and synagogues were attacked, with looting, arsons, killings and arrests → 30,000 Jews incarcerated in camps
Loyalists
Extremist Unionist group that was willing to use force to combat the Republicans
Margaret Thatcher
UK PM during NI conflict, refused to negotiate with “terrorists”, “crime is crime is crime”
Memory entrepreneur
Person who invokes aspects of history to manipulate how we remember the past, usually for political gain
Nakba
1948 Arab-Israeli War
Nationalists
One of the two sides in the NI conflict, they want to leave the UK and become a united Ireland, goal is to unite the 6 counties of Northern Ireland (with Britain) with the 26 of the Republic of Ireland
Nazi
Member of the Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party - those who believed that he Jewish population should be “exterminated” as they were subhuman, evil, weak and degenerate and that in order to return to the utopian “Great Germany”, the Jews must be killed
Negative emotions
Hate, anger, fear
Nelson Mandela
State leader that tried to help facilitate peace in Burundi
News norms
- Focus on drama
- Focus on conflict
- Fragmented - focus on events with no explanation or context given
- Ethnocentric - through lens of what “they” did to “us”
Norm entrepreneurs
Term coined by Cass Sunstein to describe those who act to change the norms of society, those who are successful produce change through norm bandwagons and norm cascades
Norms
Expectations and beliefs about properness and standards - vary between societies and groups (time and space)
PKK
Kurdish separatists
Positive emotions
Love, hope, joy
Priming
Influence over criteria with which we judge politicians, government, etc. We are “primed” to see things in a certain way
Public diplomacy
Form of soft power, communication with foreign publics to establish a dialogue designed to inform and influence, use government media,
1) Listening
2) Advocacy
3) Cultural exchange
4) Exchange diplomacy
5) International broadcasting
Republicans
Extremist Nationalist group that was willing to use force to combat the Unionists
RTLM
Popular radio station in Rwanda that spread messages of hate against the Tutsi through blame, hate and genocidal frames, instructing Hutu to “go to work” and gave advice on how to kill Tutsi
Rwandan Patriotic Front
Group of Tutsi refugees that opposed what was happening in Rwanda, were blamed for the shooting down of Habyarimana’s plane
Serbia
Republic in Yugoslavia, Serbian shot Franz Ferdinand, was said to be a conspiracy. Serbs were slaughtered by Axis powers during WWII, group that was mainly responsible for the genocide in Bosnia - wanted to return to “Greater Serbia” and attempted to do so by killing non-Serb population and raping women in order to create Serbian bloodline
Smart power
Theory proposed by Joe Nye, combining elements of both hard and soft power in order to achieve goals
Social construction
Theory that knowledge and many aspects of the world around us are not real and exist only because we give them reality through social agreement
Social laws
One of Locke’s laws - laws of reputation, opinion and fashion. Locke says says that nobody can escape the punishment of censure and dislike for those who offend social laws
Soft power
Power that is dependent on bargaining and persuading in order to achieve goals. Discussed in opposition to hard power
Spiral of Silence
Idea that people will go silent if they are against a tide of popular public opinion for fear of social isolation, even when they see “plainly that something is wrong”. Type of conformity.
Syrian Electronic Army
Group of computer hackers who support Assad regime and hack media outlets to broadcast their messages - not malicious and do not steal, merely demonstrate that they could
Terrorism
Violence against and by the state, targeting of specific groups to spread political message
Tutsi
Tribal group in Rwanda, originally favoured by colonists due to their more European looking features. Nearly a million killed by Hutu in 100 days during 1994 genocide
Unionists
One of the side in the NI conflict, want NI to remain part of Great Britain
Ustashas
Extreme Croat group that sometimes sided with the Axis powers. Croats in Bosnia were stereotyped as Ustashas
Ytzak Rabin
Israeli Prime Minister who won a Nobel Peace Prize for the Oslo accords and was then assassinated by his own people
Yugoslav partisans
Group lead by Tito, most effective resistance against Axis powers
Yugoslavia
Country in South Europe, established post WWII - 6 republics and 2 provinces. These republics began to declare independence after the death of Tito in the 1980s causing conflict and tensions between the new states
Wikileaks
Journalistic organisation which publishes secret, classified information. Created by Julian Assange. Collaborates with traditional media to make information it has hacked public
Indexing hypothesis
Media matching their perspective to that of elites (usually govt). E.g. Iraq war
Manufacturing consent
Media providing support for elite’s preferences through self-censorship
Peace journalism
- Shows all sides of conflict
- Highlights both conflict resolution and violence
- Truth over propaganda
- Does not take sides and gives voices to all
- Considers causes of conflict
War correspondence
- Polarises and escalates
- Reports and spreads hatred and revenge to stop “them” - bias towards one side
- “Peace enforcement” - peace by warlike means
