ABSTRACT
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been widely welcomed as an increasingly intrinsic and vital part of the evolving system of global governance after the end of the Cold War – a period associated with rising investment in development, humanitarian relief and a significant number of violent conflicts being brought to an end through a combination of peace-making, peacekeeping and peace-building activities (Pettersson & Wallensteen, 2015, p. 16). Unlike states, international organizations or armed groups, NGOs do not have coercive means at their disposal to influence conflict dynamics. Therefore, they need to rely on the power of ideas and discourses to make an impact on armed conflict. Since media discourses allow actors from different institutional and geographical backgrounds to shape interpretations of conflict and resulting decision-making (Baden & Meyer, 2016), influencing these discourses is therefore a central instrument used by NGOs to influence conflict dynamics. At the same time, news media may be reluctant to allow NGOs to influence their output as these organizations do not possess the same credibility, legitimacy and power as political or military actors.
