Evaluating the Role of Media in Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding

This research proposal aims to evaluate the role of media in peacekeeping and peacebuilding across the world. It explores the impact of media on conflict situations by analyzing secondary data from peer-reviewed journals and articles, aiming to understand how media influences public perception and contributes to conflict resolution. The proposal outlines research objectives, questions, and methodology, including data collection through secondary analysis and surveys, with a focus on ethical considerations and a detailed timeline. The literature review examines existing research on media bias, freedom of expression, and its influence on global events like civil wars and terrorism. The methodology involves quantitative analysis and interviews to assess the impact of media on peacekeeping efforts, considering both successful and unsuccessful cases. The research seeks to determine if media can mitigate conflicts, the neutrality of media personnel, and the importance of truthful reporting. The ultimate goal is to encourage media personnel to contribute positively to global peace and stability.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research Proposal
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Abstract
The aim of the following research proposal is to evaluate the role of media in peacekeeping and
peace building across the world. Media has always been regarded as one of the strongest
mediums to create an influence on common people. This research will feature the impacts of
media on peacekeeping by consulting with secondary data and analyze it properly to gain desired
outcomes. The research objectives and questions have been designed to conduct the literature
review properly. The methodology of the research work has been conducted according to the
needs of the researcher. The research approach has been developed to measure the research
outcomes along with highlighting ethical considerations for this research. The timeline for the
research work has also been provided in the following proposal as well.

2RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Research aim................................................................................................................................3
Research objectives.....................................................................................................................3
Research questions.......................................................................................................................4
Literature Review............................................................................................................................5
Methodology....................................................................................................................................8
Research approach.......................................................................................................................9
Data collection.............................................................................................................................9
Data analysis..............................................................................................................................10
Timeline.....................................................................................................................................10
Ethical considerations................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

3RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Introduction
Media is one of the strongest mediums to convey all forms of messages to common
people and establishing communications between people and institutions. It has been suggested
that media has played a huge role in peacekeeping all around the world. It should not be
forgotten that civil wars and violent incidents have been going on all around the world. In this
research, the role of media will be discussed on how it can bring conflict situations around the
world at a halt (Legatis 2015). Many researchers have gone on to develop their ideas through
research studies in this field. It is expected that positive role of media can be explored through
this specific study. This research is being conducted since the outcomes will encourage media
personnel in contributing positively to global peace. The research work will be carried out
through secondary analysis with the help of several peer reviewed journals and articles.
Research aim
The aim of the following research proposal is to determine how media has been
beneficial in certain cases of setting up peace and managing conflict situations through the
modes of negotiation.
Research objectives To establish a good relation between common people and media personnel for
trustworthiness Engaging all media personnel so they can be convinced about exposing truths without
compromise To help media personnel understand their mode of covering incidents create an influence
on the minds of common people

4RESEARCH PROPOSAL
 To construct positive experience among common people so they can applaud the role of
journalists in mitigating conflicts
Research questions Can media play a major role in mitigating conflict situations between two sides? Are media personnel unbiased enough to play this particular role? Will media go to the extreme extent of exposing the truth in spite of threats from powerful
people? Should media play a rather neutral role to keep their journalists safe from threats of
murder?
Literature Review
In this proposal for anticipating the role of media in evaluating the criminal incidents and
violent attributes in society, the dominant outlook of media personnel and their approach to
cover information will be discussed. In the previous research studies of the past, it has already
been found that most media houses are controlled by powerful persons in society and political
groups (Legatis 2015). This is definitely a problematic aspect for all the media houses and their
employees to present vulnerable and criminal information from a neutral perspective. There is no
doubt that this biasness from the end of media has prevented them from exposing the actual
story. Still, it must be asserted that media is the most helpful medium to know about violent
incidents happening around the society (Savrum and Miller 2015). In previous instances, it has
been seen several times that media journalists have changed perspectives of common people
regarding how they see the things.

5RESEARCH PROPOSAL
It has to be proved that media is the right way to establish truth in the world and helping
people to follow a stand in every perspective. According to previous researchers, it must be
mentioned that media must be permitted freedom of expression and speech because they should
not pick one particular side and protect their favor. It is their responsibility to present both sides
and exposing both positive and negative things. United Nations has always opined in favor of
media’s freedom of expression (Savrum and Miller 2015). It is expected that healthy media will
represent truth all across and people can get the idea about lawlessness and fearful activities that
are happening. The mass killing by ISIS, civil wars in Syria, refugee crisis in Myanmar, conflicts
between several European regions has been critical factors that must be presented. It is opined by
critics that media should be given free access to all the unbiased information for all readers. It is
applicable for both online and print media houses (Bahador 2015).
In order to focus on the positive roles of media, its negative sides and roles should be
brought out. Sometimes media houses act in biasness for ruling parties because their popularity
and survival depends largely on how they can glorify ruling parties (Sanda 2017). Previous
research works have reflected upon the issues that media houses tend to be used for purposes of
propaganda. The negative representations of media can incite hatred among common people. It
has been observed in certain examples that communal riots have come up at places due to hatred
between followers of opposite religious sects (Bahador 2015). These sinful situations generally
come up through the use of conventional media like TV, radio and newspapers. Online media
presentation has also been one of the most recent inventions that has cast influence on common
people (Moser and Korstjens 2018). It is proposed that journalism should always present itself as
a stream of presenting truth and enlighten people with true incidents and its original causes. Most
times truths are hidden to protect powerful and influential people. This should be avoided at any

6RESEARCH PROPOSAL
cost for benefits of everyone. All people have the right to know about truths taking place in
country. Moreover, media has to take the positive stand to persuade everyone to give their
opinions against global violence and terrorism (Saleem and Hanan 2014).
The proposal for the research will also be directed towards elements that are responsible
for terrorism around the world. Many researchers around the world have given their opinions on
terrorism and its impacts on peacekeeping (Sanda 2017). It is, therefore, proposed that media
should come up as the active stimulators for burying the ashes of terrorism. Global terrorism has
taken away lives of numerous people in different countries. The reasons for terrorism are many.
Conflicts are there regarding religious issues, issues of regional dominance and racial
discriminations (Suetzl 2016). Media must take up the progressive role to show the backdrops of
these activities and how it can affect psychology and survival of weaker people in society. Media
personnel of stronger countries like USA, China, Russia and others should join hands to
eradicate violence and establish peace to strengthen global economy (Zia and Syedah 2015).
Besides presenting harmful effects of violence, media should present negative outcomes of this
violence on global economy as well (Silverman 2018).
It is justified that media is definitely a very crucial weapon for establishing peace all over
the world. Numerous regions in the world are prone to conflicts. As a media professional, one
should bring out the actual inherent reasons of these conflicts. Therefore, it is the primary
responsibility of media houses to reach those conflict-prone regions and talk to local native
people about their problems and challenges (Bau 2015). They should also talk to both sides that
are involved in these precarious situations. Issues must be sorted out before peace is established.
It is also suggested in the research proposal that government must also come up to end conflicts
because it is their utmost liability to preserve peace within their jurisdiction (Zia and Syedah

7RESEARCH PROPOSAL
2015). Media professionals should sit down with them to provide convincing logic to rise above
political advantages and disadvantages and act like guardians of nation states. Media specialists
should always work for peacekeeping and preventing common people from becoming victims of
conflicts (Rawat 2014). However, available literature also suggests that media professionals have
faced some problems in working in the regions with a neutral perspective. For example, the
ending of Soviet Union and aftermaths of this event had been propagated by different journalists
in different ways (Roy and Shaw 2016). A very chaotic situation had been resulted through this
event and people wanted peace in all forms within the society. This chaotic situation had been
very humiliating for common people (Bratic 2016). It is proposed through the research work to
convince media professionals to work beyond political extremism and present unbiased news.
They must not compromise their stance for any political pressure that might threaten them and
their families. Government must provide protection for these honest media professionals (Aslam
2016). In shorter words, media must behave in a diplomatic manner and enhance public
participation in better ways.
In this quest for making the research proposal better in quality, the context of general
elections must be pointed out. In the general elections of democratic countries, media houses
presented different opinions by the effect of lobbying for different political parties (Schoemaker
and Stremlau 2014). This becomes the basis for opinion clash between media and they influence
common public by presenting stories in their own ways. According to the critics, this becomes
the stepping stone for inciting hatred and works as a barrier for peacekeeping (Bratic 2016). The
actual role of media is simply the opposite one because they must present the right news in right
way and wrong news in wrong way (Moges 2016). Previous studies have established the fact that
media biasness has resulted in creating conflicts and hamper peace in society. All media

8RESEARCH PROPOSAL
organizations, both print and online, should work constantly for keeping peace and focus on
fellow feeling between all sections of people (Roy and Shaw 2016). Anyhow, voice of common
people should be the basis of media’s voice and this research will design some ways how media
can stay focused on their responsibilities and cater to overall benefits of the society. Surely,
peace has to be established for political stability and economic growth of nation states
(Schoemaker and Stremlau 2014). Professional media houses must come out of biasness for
financial gains so they can become a part of social well being and peace.
Methodology
In this proposal, the researcher has used effective techniques that would highlight on
proper research methods and help to gain best outcomes through points presented in literature
review. The secondary data has been collected and consulted in this research from various peer
reviewed sources like books, journals articles, pamphlets and others. The quantitative analysis
has been followed in this paper to address the issues and compare the viewpoints of other authors
to construct the arguments. The data will be discussed to find out the merits and demerits of
already available research work on the topic (Cole and Trinh 2017). Surveys will be made among
common people to know about their views on the behavior of media.
Media personnel will be interviewed on how they view the social and economic well
being within a peaceful society. The conflict prone regions will be highlighted by consulting the
readings of various authors. All this information will be taken as very crucial to understand the
seriousness of the topic. Common people and media personnel will be taken as samples and their
views will be collected to show the impact of media in attempts for peacekeeping. Both the

9RESEARCH PROPOSAL
successful and unsuccessful cases of media’s attempts for establishing peace will be discussed in
the future.
Research approach
Research approach is one of the foremost factors behind conducting the research work
thoroughly. This research approach is very crucial so the researcher can come to the desired
outcome through research work. Through this step, researchers will be able to identify all the
steps of research activities properly (Cole and Trinh 2017). There are two types of research
approaches- deductive and inductive. In this research work regarding media roles for
peacekeeping, the deductive approach will be used because the research work will have to be
carried out on already available literature, theories and models (Palinkas et al. 2015). All the help
will be provided by the collected data from surveys and peer reviewed journals and articles.
Data collection
Data collection is another very crucial process of the methodology section for the
proposal. Data will be collected in the proposal to ascertain the outcome of this research work
proactively. The secondary data analysis will be followed in this research work to provide best
research outcomes (Alshenqeeti 2014). Websites information of various reputed media sources
and government data will be compared to show their urge for peacekeeping in various regions of
the world. The historic information regarding media presence and their news covering in chaotic
and tumultuous situations will be considered in this research as well. The comparison of data will
be done in alignment with all the research objectives in this scenario.

10RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Data analysis
Data analysis is also an important technique to carry out the research work in a
considerable fashion. The gathered data from secondary sources will have to be analyzed for
better understanding of readers. Several analytical techniques have been used in this context to
measure the research outcomes in proper ways. Through this process of data analysis, it will be
easier to measure the outcomes of the research in a transparent manner. All the analytical
techniques will be selected properly so the research can be carried out with the considerations
regarding the aim of the research. The composed data will be interpreted efficiently so it can be
helpful for compiling all resources and information gathered from books, journals, articles and
website information.
Timeline
Task Week
1
Week
2
Week
3
Week
4
Week
5
Week
6
Week
7
Week
8
Week
9
Selecting the topic
by researcher
Construction of
the literature
review
Selection of proper
methods
Data collection
Analysis of data
Review of

11RESEARCH PROPOSAL
probable research
outcomes
Conclusions from
research
procedure
Submission of
project draft
Printing the
research for final
submission
Ethical considerations
It is also important to maintain all the ethical principles while conducting the research
work. The names of participants of the survey will not be disclosed because it could have
impacts on their reputation from social aspects. The data will be collected from authentic
resources so there will be no problems to interpret and analyze the collected data. This will be
helpful for collecting the reactions from the sample size and compare it with gathered
information of secondary resources. The research aims and objectives will not be used by the
researcher for any commercial reasons.

12RESEARCH PROPOSAL
References
Alshenqeeti, H., 2014. Interviewing as a data collection method: A critical review. English
Linguistics Research, 3(1), pp.39-45.
Alshenqeeti, H., 2014. Interviewing as a data collection method: A critical review. English
Linguistics Research, 3(1), pp.39-45.
Aslam, R., 2016. Building peace through journalism in the social/alternate media. Media and
Communication, 4(1), pp.63-79.
Bahador, B., 2015. The media and deconstruction of the enemy image. In Communication and
Peace (pp. 120-132). Routledge.
Bau, V., 2015. Communication for Development in Peacebuilding: directions on research and
evaluation for an emerging field. Critical Arts, 29(6), pp.801-817.
Bratic, V., 2016. Peacebuilding in the age of new media. Media and communication, 4(1), pp.1-
3.
Cole, A.P. and Trinh, Q.D., 2017. Secondary data analysis: techniques for comparing
interventions and their limitations. Current opinion in urology, 27(4), pp.354-359.
Legatis, R., 2015. Media-related peacebuilding in processes of conflict transformation. Berghof
Foundation Operations GmbH.
Moges, M., 2016. Exploring Media Interventions in Peace Building and their Challenges. Online
Journal of Art and Design, 4(3).

13RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Moser, A. and Korstjens, I., 2018. Series: Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 3:
Sampling, data collection and analysis. European Journal of General Practice, 24(1), pp.9-18.
Palinkas, L.A., Horwitz, S.M., Green, C.A., Wisdom, J.P., Duan, N. and Hoagwood, K., 2015.
Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation
research. Administration and policy in mental health and mental health services research, 42(5),
pp.533-544.
Rawat, R.K., 2014. Role of Media Promoting Peace in Global Political Contexts. International
Journal of Education and Science Research, 1(4), pp.6-12.
Roy, S. and Shaw, I.S. eds., 2016. Communicating Differences: Culture, Media, Peace and
Conflict Negotiation. Springer.
Saleem, N. and Hanan, M.A., 2014. Media and Conflict Resolution: Toward building a
Relationship Model. Journal of Political Studies, 21(1).
Sanda, H.U., 2017. Media ethics and national security. Digital Media, New Order, pp.546-123.
Savrum, M.Y. and Miller, L., 2015. The role of the media in conflict, peacebuilding, and
international relations. International Journal on World Peace, 32(4), pp.7-28.
Schoemaker, E. and Stremlau, N., 2014. Media and conflict: An assessment of the
evidence. Progress in Development Studies, 14(2), pp.181-195.
Silverman, C., 2018. Can positive messaging on social media promote peacebuilding in
Myanmar?.

14RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Suetzl, W., 2016. Elicitive conflict transformation and new media: In search for a common
ground. Media and communication, 4(1), pp.4-14.
Zia, A. and Syedah, H., 2015. Use of print media for conflict resolution and peace building: A
case study of Kashmir dispute. NDU Journal, pp.161-180.