Abstract
From modest beginnings in the 1990s to undergoing epistemological development over the last decade, peace journalism has assumed the depth and richness that many of us hoped it would. We have witnessed its application beyond warfare and conflict reporting to the study of climate crisis news, and media coverage of refugees and asylum seekers, contentious political discourses, and racial-structural inequalities. Cecilia Arregui Olivera’s book continues this trend by testing the shifting notions of peace journalism in the coverage of election-related violence and terrorism, “two of the most sensitive and conflict-ridden issues” Kenya has been “dealing with in its recent history” (p.3). In focusing on journalism in a non-Western country, the book also becomes another important contribution to fast-growing peace journalism scholarship in/about the Global South.
An outcome of Olivera’s PhD thesis completed at the Aarhus University, this book offers to redefine peace journalism as “a concept in motion” that “occurs in the constant negotiation between specificities of a given context and a shared essence that revolves around values of peace, non-violence, and reconciliation” (p.3). The strength of her book lies in its qualitative inter-modal multi-methods approach: textual analysis of feature articles from Kenyan legacy outlets and mainstream newspapers from the US and the UK; 35 in-depth interviews with Kenyan journalists, foreign correspondents, editors and op-ed writers; and, to top it off, participant observations. Given the overwhelming focus of existing peace journalism research on analysing the content of news output, the interviews and participant observations serve as a supplementary approach to fulfilling the promise this book makes: redefining peace journalism.
The book is divided into five chapters, including brief introduction and conclusion chapters. The theoretical and empirical crux of the book lies in chapters 2, 3 and 4. After briefly explaining the plan of the book in the introduction chapter, Olivera takes the readers directly into the theoretical underpinnings of peace journalism. It is refreshing to see that, given it is her first book, Olivera does not shy away from criticizing the “idealistic notion” (p.15), which necessitates complete restructuring of a society to obtain peace and argues that conflict is “constant in every society” (p.15). However, the way journalists do peace journalism is not.
A central theme runs across the book: there is no one-size-fits-all approach in journalism and diverse approaches emerge from “divergent understandings and the epistemological discrepancies” (p.30) that underline debates around peace journalism. The issue of divergent understandings also serves as a point of entry to chapter 2, where Olivera sets out on a journey to investigate how journalistic practices manifest in Kenyan news content production. She is quick to clarify that the book concerns journalism practiced in Kenya, and not Kenyan journalism. This is a small but a very important detail as it prevents readers from collapsing diverse journalistic practices into a homogenous category of ‘Kenyan journalism’. Journalism in Kenya is shaped by many actors (local, diaspora, foreign correspondents, NGOs), and the disclaimer signals awareness of these complexities.
She distils six themes regarding how journalists understand peace journalism in Kenya: “culture of restraint, peace promotion, stories of hope, framing, language responsibility, and giving voice to all parties” (p.54). Olivera’s themes are consistent with the findings of previous peace journalism studies into journalistic role perceptions and practices, yet the most notable in Olivera’s case is the ‘culture of restraint’, which, in a way, redefines peace journalism through not only what journalists do, but also by their practices of avoidance. This differs slightly from Entman’s (1993) salience and omission in news framing, in that appearing more akin to self-censorship but for the social good. As one Kenyan journalist notes, the policy in many media organizations is “to avoid mentioning ethnic groups in a story by name. Because this . . . is what incites and inflames violence against [other tribes]. So, that has been a move towards peace journalism” (p.54), especially because ethnic division is the root cause of most electoral violence is Kenya.
Revisiting Peace Journalism in the Kenyan News Landscape also draws attention to the challenges of ethnicity within Kenyan newsrooms. Olivera explains that ethnicity not only forces journalists to “take sides” (p.64), but also “goes beyond their own stances” (p.65) to an extent where politicians may choose to give them an exposé depending on their surname which represents ethnicity and tribe. This is an important finding, particularly in the context of reporting elections in multiethnic societies. Extending the influential work of Wasserman and Mwende Maweu (2014) in examining tensions between journalists’ ethics and ethnicity in Kenya, Olivera offers an interesting insight into the heterogeneity of Kenyan newsrooms where “ethnicity and identity politics are ingrained” (p.66), operating as yet “another layer that influences journalistic practice” (p.66).
The transition from interviews to textual analysis is rather abrupt, nonetheless comprehensive. Additionally, a text reference to Figure 2.3 (p.71) would have been helpful in reading and understanding the figure (similarly, Table 3.1 on p.96). Also, while the introduction chapter mentions three Kenyan legacy newspapers as samples, we find only two Kenyan publications in the analysis section of chapter 2. There is no explanation as to why the third publication was removed from the analysis. However, a one-time reference to the third publication (p.73) suggests it could have been a proofing error.
Chapter 3 presents peace journalism as a “dynamic concept in between contextualism and universalism” (p.106). The mushrooming of reform models, as Olivera argues, reveals the shortcomings of the hegemonic model of journalism in dealing with contemporary challenges, and therefore the need for a peace journalism notion that is in a constant state of flux. Peace journalism, therefore, is redefined as “a dynamic concept that unfolds and evolves in the ceaseless tensions and negotiations between, on the one hand, the particulars of the time, space, context and circumstance and, on the other, its essence” (p.107). In so doing, she emphasizes the interrelationship between practices and the “lofty ideas” as journalists navigate how they want to report and what norms and values they adhere to.
Judging by the rich lucidity of Revisiting Peace Journalism in the Kenyan News Landscape, such a study would be highly prized by scholars of decolonial media and journalism, particularly those interested in the shifting role perceptions of peace journalists in the East African context.
