FRAMING OF AFGHANISTAN PEACE PROCESS IN THE REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Abstract

This study focused on the role of the news media during the peace process, particularly the US-Taliban peace talks that are covered by both regional and international media outlets. The major foundation of this research was to understand the theory of peace journalism which fosters non-violent conflict. Model of peace journalism was presented by Galtung and subsequently described by Lee and Maslog (2005). This model was used to find out how media covers the conflict issues when it is going towards peace process. Eight newspapers were selected from different nations that have major stakes in Afghanistan. The selection of eight newspapers was taken from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and India which are operationalized as Intra-Regional countries. The United States, United Kingdom, Russia, and China were operationalized as Extra-regional countries. From each state, the single most popular press was selected for a period of 26 months. Data was retrieved from Lexis-Nexis. For analysis, content categorization and coding sheets were utilized. This study provided answers to several research questions regarding agenda setting and provided support for the prevalent war and peace framing hypotheses. Results show that US and Afghanistan gave prominent coverage to the Peace talks issue followed by Pakistan and China. Overall, results indicate that Peace journalism outperformed war journalism in news coverage. In the Intra-Regional press, Peace journalism coverage dominates on US-Taliban peace talks, while war journalism dominates in the Extra-regional press. The most prominent category in War journalism frames was “Elite-oriented” and “Dichotomized”, while peace journalism categories were “Proactive”, “Multiparty”, and “Invisible war effects” was prominent. In the peace journalism category, newspapers gave less attention to “People-oriented” concerns and “Conflict resolution”. Local and national news was more peace-oriented than international news. With their pro-peace policy towards Afghanistan, Pakistan and China provide a favorable media environment for peace journalism. Governmental policies in the United Kingdom and India oppose peace negotiations; therefore, media labels debate war journalism. This study encourages international and local journalists to reconsider how they report on conflict and peace in order to enhance peace processes. In a nutshell, this study invites international and local journalists to re-evaluate their existing war and peace reporting tactics to enhance their constructive role in peace processes.