Journalism in Conflict

Sammanfattning: This thesis explores, through interviews, the journalistic norms that influence news workers in Iraq. Investigating their views of news media, its role in providing a space for peaceful resolutions to conflict and the current state of the Iraqi media landscape. After the defeat of ISIS and the prospects of the terrorist organization as a viable force in the region have diminished, old fault lines have resurfaced between ethnic, sectarian and political groups. How journalists chart these complex issues is the primary focus of this thesis. The qualitative interviews are interpreted through Qualitative content analysis, dependent on theories drawn from Journalism studies. The main theoretical perspectives employed in the study consists of Peace Journalism and the Liberal Model. The former can be claimed to situate the actor at the center of reporting, taking an active role in choosing which frames should be salient in an effort to resolve the conflict. The latter, propagates an objective distance to that which is reported, without commenting or slanting a thing called news. Analysis of the material address- es themes of independent media, funding, security, and fragmentation of the media space. How local media should operate in conflict areas is also discussed. What the analysis shows is advantages and disadvantages of the theoretical perspectives and their ability to explain as well as categorize the contextual constraints that Iraqi news workers contend with.