Media Coverage of Mediation: Before and During the Russian–Ukrainian War

Carolina Escudero

doi:10.35765/hp.2509

Data publikacji : 2024-06-30

Tom 15 Nr 51 (2024)

Media Coverage of Mediation: Before and During the Russian–Ukrainian War

Carolina Escudero

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6591-9611

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35765/hp.2509

Dział: Vol. 15, No. 51 (2024): Mediation and mediatisation of the contemporary warfare

Abstrakt

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: This study’s objective is to examine how mediation is presented in the news media stories before and during the outbreak of war.

THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The research problem is an attempt to answer the question if in stories, whereas their headlines introduce the word “mediation” or “mediator,” respond to the concepts of mediation, peace, or war journalism. This documentary research analyzes 100 news published in Spanish, where we examine how the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is presented to the readers. In addition, three experts in culture of peace (from Spain, Mexico, and Colombia) were interviewed regarding the media portrayals of war and mediation.

THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: This investigation begins with a recapitulation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine; before and after the outbreak of the war, different personalities offered intervention as a possible mediation. Despite the intentions to mediate, the war broke out, and the international community continued to search for a mediator. Thus, the influence of the media using specific words like “mediation” deserves to be explored.

RESEARCH RESULTS: The study’s findings reveal that 85% of the analyzed media used a vocabulary whose style responds to war journalism and contradicts the idea of mediation in the bodies of the news stories. As a result, four categories emerge: self-proposed mediators, requested/expected mediators, mediating countries, and mediation experts.

CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: This research demonstrates that the sense of mediation in media does not provide clarity but rather confusion. Even if the intention of mediation is covered, mostly, it is accompanied by a binary perspective of the conflict, which is the opposite of what mediation implies. The findings indicate a need to create spaces for training on culture and peace-building in the newsrooms to improve journalistic practices about armed conflicts.

Szczegóły

Bibliografia

Statystyki

Autorzy

Pobierz pliki

pdf (English)

Zasady cytowania

Wskaźniki altmetryczne

Licencja

Uwagi dotyczące praw autorskich

Autorzy publikujący w tym czasopiśmie wyrażają zgodę na następując warunki:

Autorzy zachowują prawa autorskie, przyznając czasopismu prawo do pierwszej publikacji swojego tekstu jednocześnie zarejestrowanego pod numerem licencji CC BY-ND, która pozwala innym na korzystanie z tego tekstu z uznaniem autorstwa tekstu oraz pierwotnej publikacji w tym czasopiśmie.
Autorzy proszeni są o nawiązywanie odrębnych, dodatkowych porozumień wynikających z umowy, dotyczących dystrybucji opublikowanej w czasopiśmie wersji tekstu nie na prawach wyłączności (np. opublikowanie go w repozytorium instytucji lub w innym czasopiśmie), z potwierdzeniem pierwszej publikacji w tym czasopiśmie.

Wyraża się zgodę i zachęca autorów do publikacji ich tekstu w Internecie (np. w repozytorium instytucji lub na jej stronie internetowej) przed lub podczas procesu składania tekstu jako, że może to prowadzić do korzystnych wymian oraz wcześniejszego i większego cytowania opublikowanego tekstu (Patrz The Effect of Open Access). Zalecamy wykorzystanie dowolnego portalu stowarzyszeń badawczych z niżej wymienionych:

Bibliografia

Adams, D. (2014). Cultura de paz: Una utopía posible [Culture of peace, A utopia that is possible]. Barcelona: Herder.

Aggestam, K., & Hedling, E. (2023). Digital disruption and rethinking the ‘script’ of peace mediation. The Hague Journal of Diplomacy (published online ahead of print). DOI: 10.1163/1871191x-bja10158

Barberá, P. (2014) How social media reduces mass political polari-zation. Evidence from Germany, Spain, and the US. Paper pre-pared for the 2015 APSA Conference, San Francisco, CA, USA. Available at: http://pablobarbera.com/static/barbera_polarization_APSA.pdf (accessed on 5th December).

Benedicto-Escajedo, I. (2015). El paper del periodisme en conflictes des de la perspectiva de la mediació [The role of journalism in conflicts from a mediation’s perspective]. Barcelona: Universitat Autóno-ma de Barcelona. Facultat de Ciències de la Comunicació.

Biber, D. (2009). Corpus-based and corpus-driven analysis of lan-guage variation. In Heine, B. & Narrog, H. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of linguistic analysis (pp. 159–192). Oxford: Oxford Uni-versity Press.

Bodrunova, S.S., Blekanov, I., Smoliarova, A., & Litvinenko, A. (2019). Beyond left and right: Real-world political polarization in Twitter discussions on inter-ethnic conflicts. Media and Communi-cation, 7(3), 119–132. DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i3.1934

Budka, P., & Brauchler, B. (2020). Theorizing media and conflict. New York: Berghahn.

Chaudhary, M.U., Usman, S., & Farooq, U. (2022). Role of news me-dia in the peacebuilding process. Journal of Humanities, Social and Management Sciences, 3(1), 16–25. DOI: 10.47264/idea.jhsms/3.1.2

D’Angelo, P., & Kuypers, J. (2010). Doing news framing analysis: Em-pirical, theoretical, and normative perspectives. London: Routledge.

de Beer, A. & Steyn, E. (1996) Towards defining news in the South African context: the media as generator or mediator of conflict. South African Journal of Sociology, 27(3), 90–97. DOI: 10.1080/02580144.1996.10520120

DW, El Mundo (2022, 7th March). China se ofrece como ‘mediador’ en la guerra contra Ucrania [China offers itself as ‘mediator’ in the war against Ukraine]. DW, El Mundo, https://p.dw.com/p/486s1

El Día, El Mundo (2022, March 3). En rol de mediador, Macron hablo con Putin y después lo hizo lo mismo con Zelensky [In a mediator role, Macron spoke with Putin and then he did the same with Zelensky]. El Día. El Mundo, https://www.eldia.com/nota/2022-3-3-9-7-0-en-rol-de-mediador-mac-ron-hablo-con-putin-y-despues-hizo-lo-mismo-con-zelensky-el-mundo (accessed on 5th December).

Entman, R. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51–58. DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1993.tb01304.x

Europapress (2022, 1st March). Kazajistán insta a Rusia y Ucrania a dialogar y se ofrece como mediador [Kazakhstan urges Russia and Ukraine to talk and offers itself as a mediator]. Europapress, https://www.europapress.es/internacional/noticia-kazajistan-insta-rusia-ucrania -dialogar-ofrece-mediador-20220301171639.html (accessed on 5th December).

Europapress (2022, 21th February). Macron se consolida como medi-ador para Ucrania mientras aparca su hoja de ruta electoral [Macron consolidates as mediator for Ukraine while he puts on hold his electoral roadmap]. Europapress, https://www.europapress.es/internacional/noticia-macron-consolida-mediador-ucrania-mientras-aparca-hoja-ruta-electoral-20220221151500.html (accessed on 5th December).

Europapress (2022, 26th February). Ucrania tantea a Israel como medi-ador en el conflicto con Rusia [Ukraine sounds out Israel as a mediator in the conflict with Russia]. Europapress, https://www.europapress.es/internacional/noticia-ucrania-tantea-israel-mediador-conflicto-rusia-20220226124410.html (accessed on 5th December).

European Parliament (2022). Topical Digest: Russia’s war in Ukraine: Background, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/EPRS/TD_Russia_war_Ukraine.pdf (accessed on 5th December).

Fahmy, S., & Eakin, B. (2014). High drama on the high seas: Peace versus war journalism framing of an Israeli/Palestinian-related incident. International Communication Gazette, 76(1), 86–105. DOI: 10.1177/1748048513504046.

Fisas, V. (1998). Cultura de paz y gestión de conflictos [Peace culture and conflict management]. Barcelona–París: Icaria.

Foster, K. (2003). A study in mediation styles: A comparative analysis of evaluative and transformative styles, https://mediate.com/a-study-in-mediation-styles-a-comparative-analysis-of-evaluative-and-transformative-styles/ (accessed on 5th December).

Frère, M.S. (2007). The media and conflicts in Central Africa. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Galtung, J. (1958). Theories of conflict: Definitions, dimensions, nega-tions, formations. New York: Department of Sociology, Columbia University, https://www.transcend.org/files/Galtung_Book_Theories_Of_Conflict_single.pdf

Galtung, J. (2000). Conflict transformation by peaceful means (the Transcend method): Participants’ manual, trainers’ manual. Geneva: The United Nations.

Galtung, J., & Ruge, M. (1973). Structuring and selecting news. In S. Cohen & J. Young (Eds.), The manufacture of news: Deviance, so-cial problems and the mass media. London: Constable.

Garrett, J. (1985). The Beagle Channel: Confrontation and negotia-tion in the Southern Cone. Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, 27(3), 81–109. DOI: 10.2307/165601

Gilboa, E. (2005). Media-broker diplomacy: When journalists become mediators. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 22(2), 99–120. DOI: 10.1080/07393180500071998

Hackett, R.A. (2007). Journalism versus peace? Notes on a problematic relationship. Global Media Journal: Mediterranean Edition, 2(1), 47–53.

Hart, P., Chinn, S. & Soroka, S. (2020) Politicization and polarization in COVID-19 news coverage. Science Communication, 42(5). DOI: 10.1177/1075547020950735

Heraldo USA (2021). Joe Biden explica su papel como mediador en el conflicto entre Rusia y Ucrania [Joe Biden explains his role as me-diator in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine]. Heraldo USA, 27th November, https://www.heraldousa.com/actualidad/2021/11/27/joe-biden-expli-ca-su-papel-como-mediador-en-el-conflicto-entre-rusia-ucrania-13046.html (accessed on 5th December).

Irvan, S. (2006). Peace journalism as a normative theory: Premises and obstacles. Global Media Journal: Mediterranean Edition, 1(2), 34–39.

Jamil, S. (2021). The rise of digital authoritarianism: Evolving threats to media and Internet freedoms in Pakistan. Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies, 3, 5–34.

Jamil, S., & Sohal, P. (2021). Reporting under fear and threats: The deadly cost of being a journalist in Pakistan and India. Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies, 2, 5–33. http://worldofmedia.ru/volumes/2021/WorldofMedia_2-2021-5-33.pdf (accessed on 5th December).

Lee, S.T., Maslog, C.C., & Kim, H.S. (2006). Asian conflicts and the Iraq war: A comparative framing analysis. International Commu-nication Gazette, 68(5–6), 499–518. DOI: 10.1177/1748048506068727

Lynch, J. (1998). Listening to the outsiders. British Journalism Review, 9(3), 64–69.

Lynch, J. (2002). Impunity in journalism. Media Development, 2, 30–32.

Lynch, J. (2003, 12th March). Journalists need to think: A reply to David Loyn. Open Democracy.net, http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-8-92-1037.jsp (accessed on 5th December).

Martínez-Brocal, J. (2022, 7th March). El Papa envía dos cardenales a Ucrania y el Vaticano se ofrece como mediador [The Pope sends two cardinals to Ukraine and the Vatican offers itself as a mediator]. ABC, Sociedad, https://www.abc.es/sociedad/abci-papa-envia-cardenales-ucrania-y-vaticano-ofrece-como-mediador-202203071827_noticia.html (accessed on 5th December).

McGoldrick, A., & Lynch, J. (2000). Peace journalism: How to do it? Transcend, http://www.transcend.org/pjmanual.htm (accessed on 5th December).

Ordiz, E. (2022, 16th March). Las tres caras de China en el ajedrez de Ucrania: mediador necesario, aliado de Putin y potencia que espera su momento [The three faces of China in Ukraine’s chess game: needed mediator, Putin’s ally, and world power awaiting for their moment]. 20 Minutos, https://www.20minutos.es/noticia/4970402/0/claves-china-posible-mediador-guerra-ucrania-rusia/

Pauli, C. (2007). News media as mediators. Cardozo J. Conflict Re-sol. 717, https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/570 (ac-cessed on 5th December).

Radio Televisión Española. (2022, 12th March). Turquía se erige como mediador entre Ucrania y Rusia [Turkey emerges as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine]. RTVE, https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/telediario-fin-de-semana/turquia-mediador-ucrania-rusia/6435125/ (accessed on 5th December).

Redacción Libero del Perú (2022, 28th February). ¡En busca de paz! Dueño de Chelsea será mediador en la guerra de Rusia con Ucrania [In search of peace! Owner of Chelsea will be a mediator in Russia’s war with Ukraine]. Libero.pe, https://libero.pe/ocio/2022/02/28/dueno-chelsea-roman-abramovich-sera-mediador-paz-en-guerra-rusia-ucrania-noticia-45133 (accessed on 5th December).

Rocha, E. (2021) Estudio de caso el papel de la comunidad de estados garantes y acompañantes Cuba, Noruega, Chile y Venezuela, en el proceso de paz entre el gobierno de colombiano y la guerrilla de las Farc-EP (2010-2016 (2). [Case study the role of the community of guarantor and accompanying states Cuba, Norway, Chile and Venezuela, in the peace process between the Colombian govern-ment and the FARC-EP guerrillas (2010-2016 (2)]. Canciller-ia.gov.co, https://www.cancilleria.gov.co/sites/default/files/FOTOS2020/2021_e_rocha_tesis_maestria_iaed_.pdf (accessed on 5th December).

Scribano, A.O. (2007). El proceso de investigación social cualitativo [The qualitative social investigation process]. Argentina: Prometeo Libros.

Seethaler, J. (2013). Selling war: The role of mass media in hostile con-flicts from World War I to the “war on terror.” Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Siraj, S.A. (2008). War or peace journalism in U.S. elite newspapers: Ex-ploring news framing on the Pakistan-India conflict. Paper presented at the International Communication Association annual meeting, Montreal, Quebec, May 23.

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1994). Grounded theory methodology: An overview. In N.K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of quali-tative research (pp. 273–285). Thousand Oaks: SAGE.

Taylor, S.J., & Bogdan, R. (1990) Introducción a los métodos cualitativos de investigación [Introduction to qualitative investigation meth-odologies]. Barcelona: Paidós.

Tehranian, M. (2002). Peace journalism: Negotiating global media ethics. The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 7(2), 58–83.

Thompson, A. (ed.) (2007). The media and the Rwanda genocide. Lon-dres: Pluto Press.

Tortosa, J.M. (2003). Los medios y la guerra [Media and war]. Revista de Estudios Sociales, 6, 57–69.

United Nations. (2012). United Nations guidance for effective mediation. United Nations Peacemaker, https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/GuidanceEffectiveMediation_UNDPA2012%28english%29_0.pdf

Vartanova, E., Gladkova, A., & Denis, D. (2022). On representation of conflict in modern academic discourse. Online Media and Global Communication, 1(4), 794–814. DOI: 10.1515/omgc-2022-0063

Vaughan, J. (2023). Conflict mediation and the news media, http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/119267/1/MEC_paper_66_conflict_mediation.pdf (accessed on 5th December).

Veres-Cortés, L. (2021). El terrorismo de ETA y el espacio de la per-petración: El caso de la casa cuartel de Vic [ETA’s terrorism and perpetration space: The case of Vic’s garrison house]. Perspectivas de la Comunicación, 14(2), 7–30. DOI: 10.4067/S0718-48672021000200007

Wallensteen, P., & Svensson, I. (2014). Talking peace: International mediation in armed conflicts. Journal of Peace Research, 51(2), 315–327. DOI: 10.1177/0022343313512223

Youssef, S. & Jalil Al-Harbieh, H. (2021) The mediation of Alexander Haig to avoid an Argentine_British military clash over the Falk-land Islands. 2-30 April 1982. PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt / Egyptology, 18(08), 3937–3948. Retrieved from https://archives.palarch.nl/index.php/jae/article/view/9629 (ac-cessed on 5th December).

Zesatti-Ávila, C. (2017). La paz que sí existe (y que el periodismo ignora) Veinte historias para leer en tiempos de guerra [The peace that does exist (and that journalism ignores). Twenty stories to read during times of war]. Zacatecas: Texere Editores.

Total abstract views : 87

PDF Downloads : 81