Amid the ongoing and volatile debate over the nature and potential of peace journalism, this volume presents visionary insights from some of the most prominent scholars in the field. The significant empirical studies included here will provide foundation data for communication studies. The contributors broaden the purview and terrain of peace journalism to include new media, and offers essays on the eff ects and the content of global communications. In sum, the thirteenth volume of Peace and Policy deepens our empirical knowledge of the nature and effects of conflict, while underscoring the increase in numbers of participants and breadth of communications.
For the past half decade, these contributors have worked independently and collaboratively to increase systematic understanding of the value of peace journalism and communication to civil society. Th e group has contributed to a complex articulation of the various frames of conflict coverage. In so doing, they have clarified the structural, systemic and cultural aspects of global violence. In turn, this has helped create institutions, programs and strategies for enhancing constructive peace communication that will increase mutual understanding, cooperation, reconciliation and transform confl ict.
Peace journalism has reframed understanding of confl ict from a tug-of-war between two parties in which one side's gain is the other's loss, to the terms of relationships between various sides. It considers the context and the need to identify a range of stakeholders broader than the sides directly engaged in violent confrontation. In sum, it leads to understanding of the distinction between stated demands and underlying objectives, so as to identify voices working for creative and non-violent solutions, and finding ways to transform and transcend the lines of confl ict.
Susan Dente Ross is professor at the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication, University of Washington. She is also the director of AccessNorthwest and the University of Washington. She is the author of numerous professional journal articles and author of the book Deciding Communication Law: Key Cases in Context.
Majid Tehranian is director of the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research and Adjunct Professor of International Relations at Soka University of America. He is also the series editor of Peace and Policy for Transaction Publishers.
