Peace journalism in South Africa

Abstract

This article presents a theoretical exploration of the concept of peace journalism. It assessesits usefulness for strengthening existing practices in the South African media. Peace journalismaddresses issues around journalistic practices in relation to story selection and presentation withthe aim of facilitating non-violent responses to real and potential conflict. There is no doubt thatcommercial media coverage often relies on sensational and inflammatory discourse to attractconsumers (audience), and that, even during times of peace, political communication frequentlyincorporates conflict or war terminology. Given the potential for individual and intergroup violence(actual or latent) due to the diverse nature of the population and South Africa’s historical legacies,there is a need to address peace-communication concerns on a continuous basis. This article isbased on a review of seminal literature in the field and also on the discussion and findings of around table conducted at the University of Johannesburg on 27 and 28 October 2011 with a numberof South African academics and representatives of national media-monitoring organisations.