Peace Journalism and the Syrian refugees

Author(s)

Jorge Antonio Salgado Salhani

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Artes. 2019-10-14.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Faculdade de Arquitetura. Artes. Comunicação e Design. Bauru
• Defense date: 2019-08-29
• Advisor: Raquel Cabral

Abstract

Within the context of Peace Journalism, as a concept that emerges from the Peace Studies, this research investigated in which ways the journalistic activity can assist in deconstructing the structures of violence, hence representing public interest and strengthening democracy and a culture of peace. The present study performed a content analysis of news websites Brazilian G1 and Qatari Al Jazeera English (AJE) based on the Peace Journalism framework. The case of the Syrian refugees movements from 2015 on was the main theme of the analyzed news stories. The categories of the content analysis were typology of violence, sociopolitical context, timeline, usage of sources, terminology; culture of peace initiatives, and adaptation and culture. The results of the analyses of 104 stories show that in both websites there are elements of Peace Journalism, as well as War Journalism’s ones - the latter theoretically opposes the Peace Journalism framework. For instance, G1 and AJE prioritize news that foregrounds structural violence, and include in their content information on social and political conjuncture of the Middle Eastern refugees case. Nevertheless, a detailed analysis shows that this contextualization is not covered in a thorough manner. Regarding the sources, AJE stories are the ones that incorporate statements from political authorities the most. Although those sources are also frequent on G1, in this website there is a strategy to bring the displacement issue closer to the Brazilian reality. It can be seen in stories that deal with the arrival and life of refugees in Brazil, in which the most common sources are people who have somehow been affected by conflicts. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 17/10107-8 - Syrian refugees and Peace Journalism on the news portals Al Jazeera and G1
• Grantee: Jorge Antonio Salgado Salhani
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master