Creating the Essential Middle Ground: Using Media to Enhance Tolerance and Co-Habitation in Africa

Abstract

While the media has typically been viewed as an instrument of incitement in the perpetration of genocide, this article offers another perspective on the possibility of media as a tool to promote tolerance and contribute to peace-building efforts. The author concentrates her analysis on the use of “peace media” in sub-Saharan Africa and discusses the conflicting views of media’s purpose in that region of the world. The article promotes the idea that media/journalism can be appropriately and actively used for reconciliation purposes, not just to provide an “objective” view of news items.