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Content - The transformative goals of peacebuilding and the media
The world of media works as a business. People ‘buy’ their news, entertainment, and any information that they want to receive through a media channel. The field of social marketing blends the vast knowledge of how to use the media to sell a commercial product toward the goal of social movements wanting to sell an idea or a new behavior.
Social marketing campaigns have used the media to sell ideas as products. For example, to community development and health workers, breastfeeding is an idea and a new behavior -a product - to sell. For environmentalists, getting people to stop littering is a behavior - a product - to sell. Groups use the media to sell their ideas, or to get people to adopt a new behavior or stop a former way of behaving.
The field of conflict prevention and peacebuilding has done little to lay out our specific products within a marketing framework. Usually, discussions of using the media aim for some general goal to ‘promote peace.’ Peace itself is not really a product. It is an idea, but does not necessarily suggest automatically some new specific behavior that the public should adopt. The first step in assessing the wisdom of using the media for conflict prevention and peacebuilding in a region is to determine the specific goals of local conflict prevention and peacebuilding experts that can be ‘packaged’ as tangible and realistic products to sell.
In general, conflict prevention and peacebuilding programs aim to change attitudes and behaviors away from violence and toward peace. Conflict prevention and peacebuilding respond to violence of all kinds - direct forms of armed violence and structural forms of violence that discriminate against certain ethnic, religious, gender, or economic class groups. A wide range of programs and projects aim to build relationships across the lines of conflict - building a foundation for open communication.
Violence polarizes people - pitting some groups against other groups of people. Peacebuilding seeks to build a bridge between groups of people - de-polarizing people’s attitudes and behaviors toward each other. As illustrated in the diagram below, all conflict prevention and peacebuilding aim to be part of this change process. The goal of conflict prevention and peacebuilding, in general, is to move from polarization to positive relationships. Specific conflict prevention and peacebuilding programs and projects hold more specific goals, as detailed in the box below.
The new behavior you want people to adopt is the ‘product’ in a social marketing campaign.The new behavior needs to be something that is attractive to and in the interest of the consumer in the target audience. If people do not feel they have a problem or that their situation could be improved, they are unlikely to adopt a new product.
Examples of Specific Goals in Conflict Prevention & Peacebuilding Programs
For example, in a peacebuilding project encouraging women in a community to join a women’s dialogue group, the ‘product’ is the dialogue group. A marketing campaign to encourage women to join the dialogue group needs to think about how the product meets the interests of women in that community. Is the product attractive? Is it in women’s interests? Media could be used to attract specific target groups to join a dialogue program. Like selling a product, the media would sell the idea of joining the dialogue by highlighting the benefits of joining the dialogue and possibly the costs or risks of not joining in a dialogue.
Conflict prevention and peacebuilding practitioners can best utilize the media if they are clear about their goal (their product) and also know who, specifically, they want to communicate to through the media. Social marketing is never aimed at the ‘general public.’A sophisticated and strategic use of the media is more focused on particular target and segment audiences.
For example, if the goal of a social marketing campaign is to stop littering, first research needs to be done to determine who is littering the most. In many cultures, young men are the chief culprits. In this case, young men are the ‘target audience.’ Successful media campaigns aimed at stopping littering use specific messages like ‘littering isn’t cool’ and target magazines, radio programs and billboards seen by young men.
If a peacebuilding organization wants to promote crosscultural dialogue between ethnic groups, they should think about who, in particular, they would like to join the dialogue. The media can be used successfully only when peacebuilding organizations have done the hard work to narrow down their goals and target audiences. Knowing the specific goals and the audiences required to meet their goal enables peacebuilding professionals to be more sophisticated in their choice of when and where to use the media.
The media can help achieve goals in conflict prevention and peacebuilding when paired with approaches or strategies. The media is not appropriate for all peacebuilding efforts however. Highly-sensitive negotiations, for example, are often best kept quiet without the pressure brought by media seeking to highlight areas of conflict (which helps them sell their media products) rather than serve to foster a focus on common ground, a problem-solving orientation, and hopefulness required for diplomacy.
Source: Bratic V., Schirch, L, "Why and When to Use the Media for Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding", Issue Paper 6 of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict / European Centre for Conflict Prevention, Amsterdam, 2007, pp. 12-13.
Social marketing campaigns have used the media to sell ideas as products. For example, to community development and health workers, breastfeeding is an idea and a new behavior -a product - to sell. For environmentalists, getting people to stop littering is a behavior - a product - to sell. Groups use the media to sell their ideas, or to get people to adopt a new behavior or stop a former way of behaving.
The field of conflict prevention and peacebuilding has done little to lay out our specific products within a marketing framework. Usually, discussions of using the media aim for some general goal to ‘promote peace.’ Peace itself is not really a product. It is an idea, but does not necessarily suggest automatically some new specific behavior that the public should adopt. The first step in assessing the wisdom of using the media for conflict prevention and peacebuilding in a region is to determine the specific goals of local conflict prevention and peacebuilding experts that can be ‘packaged’ as tangible and realistic products to sell.
In general, conflict prevention and peacebuilding programs aim to change attitudes and behaviors away from violence and toward peace. Conflict prevention and peacebuilding respond to violence of all kinds - direct forms of armed violence and structural forms of violence that discriminate against certain ethnic, religious, gender, or economic class groups. A wide range of programs and projects aim to build relationships across the lines of conflict - building a foundation for open communication.
Violence polarizes people - pitting some groups against other groups of people. Peacebuilding seeks to build a bridge between groups of people - de-polarizing people’s attitudes and behaviors toward each other. As illustrated in the diagram below, all conflict prevention and peacebuilding aim to be part of this change process. The goal of conflict prevention and peacebuilding, in general, is to move from polarization to positive relationships. Specific conflict prevention and peacebuilding programs and projects hold more specific goals, as detailed in the box below.
The new behavior you want people to adopt is the ‘product’ in a social marketing campaign.The new behavior needs to be something that is attractive to and in the interest of the consumer in the target audience. If people do not feel they have a problem or that their situation could be improved, they are unlikely to adopt a new product.
Examples of Specific Goals in Conflict Prevention & Peacebuilding Programs
- A Peacekeeping Mission might aim to improve the relationship between international peacekeepers and local host communities.
- A Dialogue Project might aim to include key leaders in a community in a dialogue.
- A Trauma Healing Project might aim to educate a certain number of people in skills for trauma awareness and resilience.
- A Restorative Justice Project might aim to persuade communities to reintegrate former child soldiers.
- A Peace Process might aim to encourage participation in and acceptance of a national peace agreement.
For example, in a peacebuilding project encouraging women in a community to join a women’s dialogue group, the ‘product’ is the dialogue group. A marketing campaign to encourage women to join the dialogue group needs to think about how the product meets the interests of women in that community. Is the product attractive? Is it in women’s interests? Media could be used to attract specific target groups to join a dialogue program. Like selling a product, the media would sell the idea of joining the dialogue by highlighting the benefits of joining the dialogue and possibly the costs or risks of not joining in a dialogue.
Conflict prevention and peacebuilding practitioners can best utilize the media if they are clear about their goal (their product) and also know who, specifically, they want to communicate to through the media. Social marketing is never aimed at the ‘general public.’A sophisticated and strategic use of the media is more focused on particular target and segment audiences.
For example, if the goal of a social marketing campaign is to stop littering, first research needs to be done to determine who is littering the most. In many cultures, young men are the chief culprits. In this case, young men are the ‘target audience.’ Successful media campaigns aimed at stopping littering use specific messages like ‘littering isn’t cool’ and target magazines, radio programs and billboards seen by young men.
If a peacebuilding organization wants to promote crosscultural dialogue between ethnic groups, they should think about who, in particular, they would like to join the dialogue. The media can be used successfully only when peacebuilding organizations have done the hard work to narrow down their goals and target audiences. Knowing the specific goals and the audiences required to meet their goal enables peacebuilding professionals to be more sophisticated in their choice of when and where to use the media.
The media can help achieve goals in conflict prevention and peacebuilding when paired with approaches or strategies. The media is not appropriate for all peacebuilding efforts however. Highly-sensitive negotiations, for example, are often best kept quiet without the pressure brought by media seeking to highlight areas of conflict (which helps them sell their media products) rather than serve to foster a focus on common ground, a problem-solving orientation, and hopefulness required for diplomacy.
Source: Bratic V., Schirch, L, "Why and When to Use the Media for Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding", Issue Paper 6 of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict / European Centre for Conflict Prevention, Amsterdam, 2007, pp. 12-13.
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