Are We Missing a Link? Communication in Post-Conflict Societies

When we're advocating for more attention to the role of independent media systems in developing nations, we often hear the question: What about conflict and post-conflict societies? Isn't it much more important to build peace first, to provide humanitarian aid, and to stimulate economic growth before thinking about what the people see on television?

Henriette von Kaltenborn-Stachau and Shanthi Kalathil, both CommGAP consultants, have approached this question in two papers that were presented this week to an audience of diplomats, development experts, and governance advisors at a World Bank event. In her paper The Missing Link: Fostering Positive Citizen-State Relations in Post-Conflict Environments, Henriette calls for a change from the current structural statebuilding approach to a policy that takes into account the dynamic processes that underpin the structural dimensions of governance. She analyzes the specific challenges of governance work in post-conflict countries. In unstable situations where citizens don't trust the government - nor each other - where the ties between people and state have been severed, and where people are fragmented and traumatized, civil society and state must work closely with the media to address the civic consequences of the conflict and to try healing wounds together. As analytical concept for approaching governance in post-conflict societies she suggests the model of the public sphere as national forum "where citizens and state meet through the exchange of information and expression of opinions and where citizen-state relations and processes are shaped." 

Shanthi's paper is titled Towards a New Model: Media and Communication in Post-Conflict and Fragile States and argues forcefully for including the media system as vital element of governance. A comprehensive, technically focused media and communication strategy can contribute to peacebuilding in post-conflict countries and fragile environments. In a situation of upheaval, the media provide guidance in terms of what is happening and how to find help. In the long term, media "enable citizens to shape state-building processes and contribute to their own long-term development." Nevertheless, media development in post-conflict countries is often done without much dedication to the job at hand, or rather without much belief in the media's vital function in a state. Most often, communication is perceived of as public relations. And while governments need PR to inform their citizens, we must understand media from a structural perspective and as a technical component of reconstruction and stabilization work after conflicts. If we do not learn to go beyond a narrow understanding of communication, governance advisors and government officials will never treat it seriously, and miss out on potentially important benefits that a free and independent media system can provide.

Potentially important benefits - unfortunately, the "potentially" is the crux of the matter. Shanthi and a discussant in the audience agreed that there is not much empirical evidence that gives us numbers with regard to media impact on peacebuilding. Without such evidence, donors may be cautious about putting so much weight on supporting the media. A former diplomat from Afghanistan made a case in point: Considering the unstable situation in Afghanistan, considering the humanitarian crisis, considering that people don't know whether their village will be attacked tomorrow or not - what arguments could convince donors to invest in the media at the same time as building security and providing the people with the most basic services? I suppose there is no easy answer. First of all, before we dismiss the theoretically plausible power of the media in peacebuilding, we need more systematic research on its impact. Then we need to consider that media effects are most often indirect and long-term - we will probably never see a substantial increase in a country's GDP due to establishing a legal framework for independent media. But both Henriette's and Shanthi's careful analyses make a very strong case that disregarding communication in post-conflict states means building a house without a foundation.

Photo credit: Flickr user Zoriah