Ethnic Conflicts and the Role of the Media: The Case of Turkish Media

Abstract

Since the World War II the history has showed us how media can be directly involved in ethnic conflicts. Sudan, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, UK-Northern Ireland, Spain, Chechnya, Sri Lanka, and Turkey are current examples of these conflicts. In Turkey, an armed conflict between the Turkish Armed Forces and the Kurdish armed organization PKK has caused mass human rights violations and loss of human lives and; strained the economy and damaged the environment. In this study, the following points are examined: 1) what are the connections between ethnic conflict and the media; 2) how do Turkish mainstream media framed the ethnic conflict; 3) what role do the media can play to prevent/resolve ethnic conflicts. The study also includes comparison of fundamental approaches of peace journalism and war journalism towards the conflict. Although most of the examples that shows what role the media played in ethnic conflicts are negative. The study concludes that the media can play an effective, positive role to prevent or reconcile ethnic conflicts and to contribute to the post conflict resolution, reconciliation and peace building.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n10p338