Exploring Journalism's Transformative Roles During Wars and Violent Conflicts

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.60678/817v3x25

Keywords:

conflicts, journalism, transformation, peacebuilding, moderation, empowerment

Abstract

Journalism plays an important part in keeping audiences around the globe informed about conflicts. Scholars have argued, however, that journalism can also prove vital in terms of decreasing conflict intensity. Based on this normative approach, we review literature on journalistic roles and conflict reporting and explore four transformative roles that journalism can play to decrease conflict intensity: (i) informer, (ii) explainer, (iii) moderator and (iv) benefactor. We argue that these roles are key to understanding the cause(s) of the conflict and the impact it has on various groups, as well as for exploring opportunities for peace through dialogue. The implementation of these roles is elaborated on using the prolonged and often violent conflict between India and Pakistan as an example. The potential significance of the roles in terms of their transformative abilities and the need for their empirical analysis is outlined.

 

Author Biographies

  • Muhammad Sultan Malik, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

    M. Sultan Malik works as a research assistant at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany, where he is also pursuing his doctorate. He is affiliated with the R&D project “Media for Peace” (M4P) and conducts academic research pertaining to the conceptualization and practice of journalism, particularly in non-Western countries and contexts.

  • Annika Sehl, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

    Annika Sehl is professor and chair of journalism, with a focus on media structures and society at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Germany. She is also a research associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford in England and an affili-ate member of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S) in Australia. Her research focuses on public service media as well as journalism in the context of societal conflict and polarization. Frequently adopting an internationally comparative perspective, she examines these areas from both communicator and audience perspectives to un-derstand how they are shaped by the digital transformation of news organisations, production, and consumption.

  • Christoph Neuberger, Freie Universität Berlin

    Christoph Neuberger is a full professor of media and communication science at Freie Universität Berlin and the managing director of the Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin, a publicly funded institute for interdisciplinary research on the digital transformation of society. He is a regular member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BAdW) and the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech). His research focuses on the digital transformation of media, the public sphere and journalism. 

  • Sonja Kretzschmar, University of the Bundeswehr Munich

    Sonja Kretzschmar is a professor of innovation in journalism at Universität der Bundeswehr München. Her research focuses on innovations in journalism, peace journalism and journalism in conflict regions and in cases of risk. She is project leader of the international and interdisciplinary project for research and development M4P, which is funded by the European Union (Program Next Generation EU) and dtec (Zentrum für Technologie- und Digitalisierungsforschung der Bundeswehr).

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Published

14-07-2026

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 1 (2026)

Section

Peer-Reviewed Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Muhammad Sultan Malik, Annika Sehl, Christoph Neuberger, Sonja Kretzschmar

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Malik, M. S., Sehl, A., Neuberger, C., & Kretzschmar, S. (2026). Exploring Journalism’s Transformative Roles During Wars and Violent Conflicts. Global Media Journal - German Edition, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.60678/817v3x25