Transcript Analysis and Conflict Management Evaluation

This document provides an analysis of a video interview on the topic of religion promoting violence, extremism, and terrorism. It also evaluates the conflict management aspects of the interview and suggests ways to improve it.

Running head: TRANSCRIPT ANALYSIS AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
EVALUATION
TRANSCRIPT ANALYSIS AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT EVALUATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1TRANSCRIPT ANALYSIS AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT EVALUATION
Table of Contents
1. Transcript Analysis......................................................................................................................2
Purpose of participants................................................................................................................2
Stories and acts of vilification.....................................................................................................2
Instances of threats......................................................................................................................2
Reliance on opinions rather than facts.........................................................................................2
Conflict Management Evaluation Report........................................................................................3
Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
Analysis of the video.......................................................................................................................3
Analysis of the participants.............................................................................................................5
Discussion of ideal conflict management by participants...............................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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1. Transcript Analysis
Purpose of participants
At the beginning it can be seen that the purpose of the news personnel are to question the
scholar Reza Aslan about the various issues that tend to affect Islamic countries across the world.
It seems that the interviewers or the news personnel are more inclined to pressurize Reza to a
certain extent. Reza on the other hand is focused on clearing misconceptions that have grown
about the Islamic faith. This setting could have caused conflict.
Stories and acts of vilification
The interviewers are clearly telling them stories in regards to Islam being directly
responsible for the violent activities of terrorists across the globe. There have been vilification as
the interviewer Camerota at the very beginning interrupts Reza’s speech abruptly (Youtube
2019). This takes place throughout many other instances during the debate. Reza is at times
intimidated by showing videos of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Instances of threats
There were instances when Reza Aslan became passively threatened. This happened
when he was being interrupted by the news personnel interviewers. Aslan became greatly
threatened by the way in which the interviewers were interrupting his expression of his point of
views. The views of Aslan were being continuously challenged instead of having a healthy
conversation.
Reliance on opinions rather than facts
In most instances the reliance was more on opinions rather than facts. For example- the
very first reference video was a completely personal opinion of a TV personality. Moreover, the

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video of Netanyahu was also an opinion rather than fact. The interview was based more on
opinionated understanding of the context. Hence, the interview became very one sided without
any healthy discussion.
Conflict Management Evaluation Report
Introduction
The study will focus on analyzing the video and the participants of the interview in the
context of conflict management. Conflict management is the effective management of conflicts
through the limiting of negative conflict aspects and increasing of the positive aspects of
conflicts. Through this conflict management focuses on gathering better implications out of
conflict situations (Rahim 2017). In the interview there are several instances of conflicts that
arise. The scenario of the interview becomes unnecessarily aggressive at various points. This
greatly affects the potential meaningfulness of the debate in regards to extremism and the Islamic
faith. The video features scholar Reza Aslan and interviewers Camerota and Lemon. The
discussion is in regards to how Islam might or might not be responsible for the extremist issues
occurring in many of the Islamic countries. The interview transcript has to be effectively
analyzed in order to understand the conflict situations that occur within the video.
Analysis of the video
The video starts with Camerota the presenter stating the topic of discussion in a video
interview that take place in a studio environment. Lemon quickly moves forward the discussion
and the interviewee, Reza Aslan, the writer of the book Zealot is introduced. Immediately a clip
of comedian Bill Maher is played where the comedian says that despite the common insistence
of extremist groups are not Islamic by prominent people such as then president Obama the reality
is quite different (Youtube 2019). Maher continues by saying that Muslims across the world

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believe in ideology that justifies the killing of people for being of different faith or just because
they have drawn a cartoon. This is the thing that is common between them and ISIS opines
Maher. The conversation moves forward with Reza Aslan after this and the debate becomes
more prominent as the interview progresses.
Very early into the video an aggressive setting and tone can be noticed. It is important to
understand that the interview is being held in the context of an important debate that has
concerned the world in the 21st century. The debate is of religion promoting violence, extremism
and terrorism. Especially, Islam and its practices have been questioned for supposedly promoting
extremism (Durward 2016). The interviewers are speaking to Aslan in an aggressive manner
despite the evident formalities. The media have treated the debate in a biased fashion in the
recent times. The interviewers seem to intimidate Reza to some extent and frequently interrupt
his speech (Caputo, Ayoko and Amoo 2018). This creates an aggressive environment in the
video which aggravates the difficult debate. The video clips that are shown in the video are
Maher’s video in the beginning, in the middle there is a video clip of Benjmin Netanyahu about
Hamas and ISIS and at the end there is a similar video of Netanyahu (Tenenboim-Weinblatt,
Hanitzsch and Nagar 2016). The problem is that the opinions expressed in the video are to a
great extent biased due to personal or political contexts.
In the reference video of Netanyahu, he is trying to put forward his opinion in regards to ISIS
and Hamas. This opinion is very much affected by the Israeli Prime minister’s perspectives and
the perspective of the state of Israel. In Palestine and many Middle East nations more favorable
perspectives are present regarding Hamas and it is not equated with ISIS. The views that are
expressed by Aslan come under unnecessary scrutiny by the interviewees at many points. Even
the more moderate and neutral opinions are sometimes wrongly interpreted by the interviewers.

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Hence, it can be said that the debate in the interview was not very healthy and somewhat affected
by prejudices of the interviewers and the media channel (Forbes 2018).
Analysis of the participants
The participants were interviewers and news persons Camerota and Lemon and the
interviewee Reza Aslan. Better conflict management of the participants were required in the
scenario of the video. There were several instances when the lack of proper conflict management
was showing in the video. The presenters became aggressive and highly opinionated many times.
The interruptions were particularly leading to conflict positions (Mac Ginty and Williams 2016).
This was also the reason the ideas of both parties were not being properly highlighted in the
video. Conflict management depends on various stages of identification and evaluation of any
given conflict situation. The various stages of conflict are discomfort, incident,
misunderstanding, tension and crisis (Proksch 2016). These issues often give rise to situations of
greater mismanagement that aggravates the conflicts.
Lemon and Camerota were clearly much aggressive in their tone throughout the video.
Moreover, the somewhat fast progression of the interview left very little room for an effective
discussion. Firstly, the position of Camerota needs to be understood. In the video Camerota is
clearly seen interrupting Aslan and aggressively putting forward her counter arguments without
giving a chance to Aslan to finish his statements. She is also seen to be attacking some of the
statements of Aslan without him completing his statement. For example- the statement of Reza
about female genital mutilation being an African problem and not being an Islamic problem was
met with aggressive counter question from her.

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The issue with Lemon is in regard to how he was managing the interview. He kept on
with the conversation much in line with the views of Camerota without providing any
perspective of his own. Here he merely acts in a way that only emphasizes what Camerota’s
opinion. Hence, he is making no attempt to balance the conversation and along with his co-
interviewer aggressively trying to give more prominence to their own opinions.
The interviewee Reza tries to provide his statements without much emphasis on the
points that he wants to highlight. He many times fails to effectively handle the aggressive
pressure of the opinions that are in a way being forced on him. He is also seen giving a more
American perspective regarding the matter of extremism and defending the views of his religion
rather than addressing the political situations that also lead to extremism. Much of these
scenarios have also been created due to some ineffective foreign policies of the US.
Discussion of ideal conflict management by participants
The participants needed to exercise better conflict management in the given video
scenario. Hence, the conversation that took place in the video was not effective or as much
fruitful as was required (Joo Kim et al. 2015). Firstly, it should be remembered that conflict
management requires effective identification of issues. For this facts and figures are required.
The interviewers or the news personnel based almost the entire conversation on the context of
the opinions provided by some eminent figures of the US and the world. This made the
conversation more opinionated rather than factual. Secondly, the interviewees were aggressive in
their attitude and constantly tried to give prominence to their opinions above the opinion of Reza
(Proksch 2016). The interviewee was merely shown some videos of a comedian giving his
personal statement and of the Prime minister of Israel speaking on a given political context.
Moving forward the news personnel merely stressed further on the opinions that were expressed

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by Maher and Netanyahu. Thirdly, the interviewee was intimidated to a certain extent and was
given much difficulty in providing his opinion.
The interview needed to be better managed by the news personnel. Both Lemon and
Camerota needed to be more neutral and less aggressive in putting forward their opinions. In
many cases their behavior and statements were provocative for any person practicing Islam.
Conflict management requires conflict issues to be handled with sensibility, fairness and
efficiency (Folger, Poole and Stutman 2015). In regards to this Camerota needed to develop
better ways of questioning Aslan. She needed to be more open towards accepting the views of
Aslan. She should have provided Aslan with the opportunity to express his views without much
interruption. Lemon should have acted as a balance in making the conversation more open rather
than simply reiterating the views of Camerota. The entire interview should have been based on
factual evidences rather than directly relying on opinions and attacking the beliefs of all
practitioners of Islam. In essence a more open environment needed to be created where the
interactions could have been more meaningful (Backer, Bhavnani and Huth 2016). Reza could
have given a more clear perspective explaining the political and social rather than religious
nature of the conflict situation.
Conclusion
In conclusion it can be said that the conflict management aspects were not properly
maintained in the given video. The interview rather focused towards the aggressive presentation
of views that were definitely biased on the part of the interviewees. It is important to remember
that the participants needed to provide more importance to the factual evidences rather than the
opinions of people. In essence, the video shows a largely ineffective conversation between the
various parties. The fast progress of the interview left very little room for an effective

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meaningful perspectives to develop in the discussion. Hence, it can be said that the implications
generated were not satisfactory.

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References
Anthony, F., Hermans, C. and Sterkens, C., 2016. Religion and conflict attribution (p. 300).
Brill.
Backer, D., Bhavnani, R. and Huth, P. eds., 2016. Peace and Conflict 2016. Routledge.
Bunce, M., 2017. Management and resistance in the digital newsroom. Journalism,
p.1464884916688963.
Caputo, A., Ayoko, O.B. and Amoo, N., 2018. The moderating role of cultural intelligence in the
relationship between cultural orientations and conflict management styles. Journal of Business
Research, 89, pp.10-20.
Colvin, R.M., Witt, G.B. and Lacey, J., 2015. The social identity approach to understanding
socio-political conflict in environmental and natural resources management. Global
Environmental Change, 34, pp.237-246.
Durward, R., 2016. Religion, conflict and military intervention. Routledge.
Folger, J., Poole, M.S. and Stutman, R.K., 2015. Working through conflict: Strategies for
relationships, groups, and organizations. Routledge.
Forbes, 2018. 5 Keys of Dealing with Workplace Conflict. [online] Forbes.com. Available at:
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/02/22/5-keys-to-dealing-with-workplace-
conflict/#3cfeba611e95>

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Joo Kim, E., Yamaguchi, A., Kim, M.S. and Miyahara, A., 2015. Effects of taking conflict
personally on conflict management styles across cultures. Personality and Individual
Differences, 72, pp.143-149.
Mac Ginty, R. and Williams, A., 2016. Conflict and development. Routledge.
Proksch, S., 2016. Conflict Management. Springer.
Rahim, M.A., 2017. Managing conflict in organizations. Routledge.
Scherrer, C.P., 2017. Ethnicity, nationalism and violence: Conflict management, human rights,
and multilateral regimes. Routledge.
Tenenboim-Weinblatt, K., Hanitzsch, T. and Nagar, R., 2016. Beyond peace journalism:
Reclassifying conflict narratives in the Israeli news media. Journal of Peace Research, 53(2),
pp.151-165.
Youtube, 2019. Reza Aslan's interview on CNN ‘Does Islam promote violence?’ ft Bill Maher.
[online] YouTube. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-W-7ozJXLw>