Project Update

The clock is ticking until the deadline for my presentation in our peace seminar. I have just a week and a half left. The research process is slow going. Apparently peace journalism is a pretty narrow field for research. There are many papers written by European institutions about peace journalism and its benefits, but it is difficult to find research that has investigated its impact on news audiences and conflict at large. I am finding that I may have to do some empirical research over the course of the next year if I plan to use this topic at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum. Plus, my personal curiosity demands that I look further into this.

I have found some pretty interesting data from the Pew Research Center. I did some research on American opinions about the conflict in Israel and the occupied territories. According to a poll in May, 48 percent of Americans sympathize with the Israelis over the Palestinians. Just 11 percent support the Palestinians more, and only four percent support both equally. If you are wondering why Americans support Israel so much, here is another gem. Seventy percent of evangelical Christians support Israel over Palestine. We're not dealing with the media alone, folks.

Another question gauged Americans' interest in the conflict in Israel. Only 24 percent said they were not interested at all, while 37 percent were somewhat interested and 22 percent were very interested. This leads me to a conclusion that there is space for influencing public opinion through a different form of reporting. Hard news sells. I don't deny that the inverted pyramid is the most fundamental, successful form of print journalism, but I wonder if covering the basics of a conflict in an "objective" manner really does the conflict or the reader justice. Maybe reporters just need to accept that they play a role as gatekeeper, and the information and the angle of every story is subjective in some way.

Herein lies the paradox: News consumers claim they want to know what is happening in places such as Israel, but this is not the news they actually pay attention to. Would peace journalism fulfill their demands for more news about the conflict, or would it just slip behind the blow-by-blow reporting that already grabs their attention? As you can probably see, there are many things to work through.

Just a side note: I have only four followers on my blog, but I am sure there are other people who are reading this. I am trying to cater to my audience as well as write for myself, but it is difficult to do that without knowing who is reading. Could you please officially follow my blog or send me a message on Facebook to let me know? Thanks!

The photos above come from a piece of artwork outside of the Holocaust Center in Oslo. The artwork is meant to mimic a registration card similar to those used by regimes that discriminate against minorities, such as the Nazi regime against the Jews and Gypsies. The categories such as ethnicity, gender, and nationality change every so often. I thought the photos would be appropriate considering the number of Palestinian refugees who have been displaced as a result of this conflict.