Media for Peace

Image via Common Ground Productions

The Communication Initiative Network knows that media can be a powerful tool in changing attitudes and promoting peace throughout the world.  At the organization’s resource-rich website, academics and practitioners alike can learn about the complex challenges facing this community, celebrate hard-won victories, and explore new opportunities to affect lasting change.  Recently, they highlighted some of the media-specific efforts of Search for Common Ground…

The launch of Radio for Peacebuilding in Pakistan, based on the commitment by over 50 FM radio stations to “use the airwaves in the service of promoting peace, development, and social empowerment of communities.”  After three years of working in Pakistan through its Partners in Humanity program, SFCG established a formal office there in January 2010, expanding its nascent media engagement strategy to include not only Radio for Peacebuilding, but the development of a cricket-based Team dramatic series.

The ongoing success of The Team: Kenya, as demonstrated in the independent midterm evaluation report released by the University for Peace (UPEACE).  The study found that the radio and TV programs have both reached a mass audience; are effectively addressing complex themes such as tribalism and corruption; and are “[inspiring] viewers from different tribes to take positive action among and between one another.”

The creation of Accountability Now, a radio program in Sierra Leone focused on giving citizens the tools and information necessary to hold their local councils accountable and prevent corruption.  Search is engaged in other, similar efforts to connect people to their leaders, presenting video vignettes of youth expressing their opinions on a range of issues to government officials.

What media-driven campaigns have inspired you lately?

What tools are organizations and individuals using to affect positive change?