Local Media in Global Conflict Southeast Asian Newspapers and…全球冲突中的当地媒体东南亚报纸和.pdfVIP

IJCV: Vol. 8 (2) 2014 Ozohu-Suleiman and Ishak: Local Media in Global Conflict Early View 1 Local Media in Global Conflict: Southeast Asian Newspapers and the Politics of Peace in Israel/Palestine Yakubu Ozohu-Suleiman, Department of Mass Communication, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria Sidin Ahmad Ishak, Department of Media Studies, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia It is often assumed that local media are a potential deescalating tool in global conflict. This study examines how four leading newspapers in Southeast Asia (Star of Malaysia, Philstar of the Philippines, Jakarta Post of Indonesia, and The Nation of Thailand) reported the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the year after the 2009 Gaza War. A census of 536 reports was coded for tones (to detect alignment), frames (to detect characterization of the conflict), and sources (to examine correlation with coverage tones). The results show fragmented alignment of the newspapers with Palestine and Israel. Conflict frames on offen- sives, fighting, threats, military strategies, demonization, death, and destruction were most prevalent. Coverage tones were significantly correlated with sources, suggesting that the potential of local media to serve as deescalating tools in global conflicts is subject to the varying political contexts in which they operate in relation to specific conflicts. Despite growing recognition of the importance of local Surprisingly, the most neglected conflict in local media media in shaping conflicts (Puddephatt 2006), existing evi- research is the most globally diffused and intractable one – dence still upholds Blondel’s observation that “much of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, whose metamorphosing the research on the role of the media in conflict has recurrence and growing chain of links to