The role of television in conflict transformation and peacebuilding in the December 2007/2008 January post election violence in Kenya.

Abstract

The media occupies a crucial position in society owing to its power over the masses' reasoning and its ability to influence, mobilize and to draw the public's attention to issues that would have otherwise passed under without being noticed. This role has been informed by the way in which the media is able to shape the audience's perceptions and the public's agenda. The media presents the opportunity to communicate to a large audience while at the same time, the ability to target particular segments of the audiences. Although television media is structured in a way that is orchestrated by special groupings of people (reporters, editors, news mangers, features) whose attention is to persuade potential audiences of the benefits of their attention and others who monitor the flow of information to the targeted audiences. Research has come to acknowledge that the public rely on the media for information and therefore uses this information to make informed decisions and choices in life. Contrary to this, today the field of communication appears to be perpetually under construction, as new concepts such as the new media and challenges that emerge. The current meaning of television broadcast journalism has grown into entirely news discipline under the emergence of new technology. The intellectual discourse over the role of the media and specifically television's role in conflict transformation and peacebuilding process is a product of constructing peace journalism. These issues have been under study by many media scholars in order to understand the basis of a lasting peace. Therefore, the media framing at exents to a large extent sets the publics' agenda for debates. This means that the media's image of transib.rm-i.ng conflicts and building peace in society is important. It is important to acknowledge that the media provides the public with views and opinions of the world outside their immediate surrounding from which they form pictures in their minds Iheads. The media compels our attention to certain pertinent issues by ignoring some and prioritizing others. This study tries to establish the role the television stations played in the event of the 200712008 PEV conflict in conflict transformation and peacebuilding in Kenya.