Conflict-Sensitive Reporting: Using digital media to mitigate crisis

By: Mayen Etim

KADUNA, North-West Nigeria – The media landscape has changed over time from off-line to online, the Chief of Party, Peace Action for Rapid and Transformative Nigerian Early Warning Response, (PARTNER), Danjuma Dawop, has said.

He asserted this at a one-day training on Conflict-Sensitive Reporting workshop for media practitioners in Kaduna on Monday, May 6.

According to Dawop, before now Journalists get their sources of information by meeting with participants, subjects or people and speak to them directly, however today the context has changed because of the digital media and this has impacted on the profession.

He noted that the space or ecosystem in which the digital media operates is not regulated and anybody can put out news items and people will read, believe and even take action on same.

Speaking on the topic: “Digital Peace-building Approach” Dawop posited that addressing these challenges requires a sound risk assessment framework that empowers local actors, social media companies and international partners to anticipate and prevent harms arising from the interplay between digital ecosystems and offline conflict dynamics.

“So, for us, we feel that it is important that media practitioners are aware of the impact of the social media on the Journalism profession, and also in peace-building because Journalists are agents of peace, hence by using the social media they can be able to disseminate information that can create unity among communities.

“Journalists have platforms for mitigating the negative impact of social media. They are also seen as the last bastion of information with regards to the common man.

“So, the media can extend it’s influence to educating more people, providing more clarity especially with regards to peace and conflict where they are able to: analyze a particular conflict situation to provide both perspectives of the conflicts itself; highlighting some of the needs and interests, as well as the fears of the people in the conflict to provide more clarity; and also the people in conflict will be informed about the real underlining issues of the conflicts,” he added.

Dawop outlined some of the risk framework to include: “Sources of risk that facilitate social media weaponization; intergroup conflicts that promote perceptions of vulnerability and threat between groups; governance failure which can undermine state legitimacy and political participation; and socioeconomic frustrations that foster expectations gaps, scapegoating and an openness to violent actors.”

The Chief of Party went on to note that: “The sad thing about this is that there are lots of news items flying around, which even the media practitioners themselves are not aware, and sometimes it become so difficult when someone go to a journalist to verify a particular information of which he is not even aware of because it is trending on the social media.”

Also speaking, the Coordinator of the PARTNER project in the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), Abuja, Mr. Steve Agbo, said the workshop is basically for peace Journalists in Kaduna state.

He explained that the PARTNER project is all about creating sustainable peace in Nigeria especially in the 9 intervention states of the project sponsored by USAID to enhanced Early Warning Early Response (EWER) system in the North-Central and North-West regions.

He said it is very important that the role of the Journalists here, is to ensure that people gets the true story, and on what the project PARTNER is doing publicized across the targeted regions. “So, it became necessary to bring the Journalists in Kaduna together to discuss and ensure that there is the incorporations of the “Do No Harm” and conflict-sensitivity in their reportage across the state. This is largely the essence of the training,” the Coordinator said.