CFOM is very pleased to have hosted a CFOM conference and a 2-day academic workshop on the role of the factual mass media in civil society building in post-conflict settings in June 2018.
Professor Jeffrey Alexander gave the keynote ‘Civil Sphere and Transitions to Peace: Cultural Trauma and Civil Repair’ (download the paper here: Jeffrey_Alexander_PCR_conf). His talk was followed by an exciting programme with presentations ranging from the building of civil norms, the visibility of UN peacekeeping operations in the international news media, the partnership between Fondation Hirondelle and UN peacekeeping to more specifically, the public information aspect of UN peacekeeping in DRC and the way in which radio can be used for women’s empowerment in Niger.
The conference was followed by a two-day academic workshop. During this workshop a group of international scholars worked on a common research agenda regarding an analysis of UN peacekeeping media in post, current and future peacekeeping operations. The workshop team decided to create a Media in Peace Operations Research Group, which will be hosted by CFOM and who will be officially launched at the International Peace Week in Geneva in November 2018.