ABSTRACT
Peace journalism is a child of its time, a reaction to fractured politics and a growing disenchantment with journalistic norms that fan confl ict, inadvertently or otherwise. Peace journalism was fi rst proposed in the 1970s by Norwegian peace studies founder Johan Galtung, who envisioned it as a self-conscious, working concept for journalists covering war and confl ict (Lynch & McGoldrick, 2006). Galtung (1998a), who made a strong case for rerouting journalism to a “high road” for peace, was critical of the “low road” taken by news media in chasing wars and the elites who run them, fi xating on a win-lose outcome, and simplifying the parties to two combatants slugging it out in a sports arena. War reporting is also infl uenced by a military command perspective: news is about who advances, who capitulates, while losses are recorded in terms of tangible human casualties and material damage. Galtung urged journalists to take the “high road” of peace journalism that focused on confl ict transformation: “As people, groups, countries and groups of countries seem to stand in each other’s way (that is what confl ict is about) there is a clear danger of violence. But in confl ict there is also a clear opportunity for human progress, using the confl ict to fi nd new ways, transforming the confl ict creatively so that the opportunities take the upper hand-without violence.”
