Can digital media help to build peace in weak and conflict-ridden states or will they foment violence? This paper discusses participatory digital media in the context of 21st century conflicts. It argues that successful intervention cannot be based on the operating frameworks of traditional media support. Evidence from case studies in Afghanistan, Kenya, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Burma demonstrates that digital media strategies require dynamism, flexibility and close attention to grassroots reality if they are to build political participation, openness and trust.
Modern conflict is often focused within states, with fighting taking place near population centres. Digital media give more people the tools to record and share their experiences of conflict; they drastically reduce costs and remove the constraints of the formal editorial structure.
Increased access to information and to the means to produce media has both positive and negative consequences in conflict situations. The question of whether the presence of digital media networks will encourage violence or lead to peaceful solutions may be viewed as a contest between the two possible outcomes. It is possible to build communications architectures that encourage dialogue and non-violent political solutions. However, it is equally possible for digital media to increase polarisation, strengthen biases, and foment violence.
Most weak and fragile states are experiencing growth in new technologies, particularly mobile phones. However, the picture is not uniform, and conflict can work as both obstacle and motivator for increased communications access. Many non-profit, research, rights and policy advocacy organisations now work directly as providers of information.
Traditional media support in conflict zones has been based on a transmitter-recipient model, where those with power send messages to a passive audience to persuade, propagate intolerance or to send messages of peace. Interventions in conflict-prone areas need to acknowledge the dynamic, changing nature of digital media. It is important to understand that:
- The future direction of digital media is unpredictable: strategies should experiment and innovate, and prepare for potential failure
- Digital media are hard to control, censor or regulate: the focus should be on quality and plurality rather than on restriction, and on developing open networks to facilitate trust
- Projects involving local communities need to work with traditional media and within existing technological constraints to address specific problems.
Conflict-related digital media assistance programmes can encourage openness, provide alternative views and reduce control over information. To be effective, such projects need to:
- Work hard to be seen as benevolent, impartial, trustworthy and transparent, focusing on long-term relationships and creating communities that value facts, evidence, commentary and relationships
- Understand conflict as an ongoing process rather than as involving discrete stages, especially in areas with a long history of instability Build networks of journalists and citizen media, design early warning and incident verification systems, make long-term investment in technical networks and support investigative reporting
- Avoid top-down approaches and pay attention to grassroots innovation as people adopt innovative approaches and use networks and software applications to their own ends.
