Emine Uçak Erdoğan, journalist, has written an article entitled ‘Media, Problems and Conflict Resolution’ following DPI’s Reverse CSV ‘Communicating Peace and Enhancing Dialogue: Reconsidering the Role of Media in Conflict Resolution’, held in Istanbul on 23 October 2021. During the event, Owen Bowcott, former Ireland correspondent for The Guardian, highlighted that security approaches bring the voter base closer to the ruling party. Thus, journalists have the power to break this cycle through solution-oriented journalism that emphasises society’s problems. However, breaking the cycle is not an easy task for the media in the country. Media in Turkey has repeatedly suffered from administrative and structural problems. Monopoly over the media and state intervention have intensified the problems in journalism.
Nowadays, there is a mainstream media that does everything except make society’s problems visible. Before, despite all the media issues, sometimes the determination of a team, a newly opened channel, or a reporter specialised in his field ensured honest reporting. This is no longer possible.
Journalism has now turned into a skill that functions as a political engineering, where the news is manipulated instead of what portraying what happened. The “alternative media” filled a narrow space, however, as society expects more activism, it is hard for the alternative media to deliver its journalistic responsibilities.
If we look at our experiences of the solution process, we can observe that the media had a supportive stance. However, the reflection of the solution process into the media has turned into a public relations activity of the political parties because the information flow was insufficient, and the media did not have an extra demand for it.
Although there is a vicious debate over whether the Kurdish issue exists or not, civil society, especially institutions such as the DPI and the Peace Foundation, continue their peace efforts based on the importance of re-talking the issue with the different layers and parties. The role of the media in the polarisation of society should be discussed over and over again.
Link: https://www.perspektif.online/medya-sorunlar-ve-catisma-cozumu/