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On a trip to Cambodia a few years ago, I drove underneath a banner spanning a large downtown thoroughfare. In English, it somewhat laboriously spelled out the importance of supporting long-term development. I can't imagine that any of the Cambodians zipping up the street underneath the sign got that much out of it, but I'm sure some donor somewhere felt satisfied that the message had somehow contributed to Cambodia's well being.

For too long, the donor community has treated media and communication in post-conflict environments as a kind of afterthought. The resulting jumble of short-term messages, public relations activities, and scattershot media sector programs has left many confused about what role communication can and should play in post-conflict environments, if any. 

In fact, the media and communication sector is vital to both post-conflict reconstruction as well as long-term development. In a paper I co-authored with John Langlois and Adam Kaplan, we explore the ways in which media and communication contribute to immediate stabilization, peace processes, improving governance, and other common challenges in fragile and post-conflict environments. Towards a New Model: Media and Communication in Post-Conflict Environments (you can download it here) suggests that we need a new model for understanding the role media and communication plays in these situations. I'll be expanding on a few themes in the paper in subsequent posts, and would welcome comments and input.