# Moving media and conflict studies beyond the CNN effect

**Authors:** Eytan Gilboa, Maria Gabrielsen Jumbert, Jason Miklian, Piers Robinson
**Published in:** *Review of International Studies* 42(4), 654-672, 2016
**DOI:** https://doi.org/10.1017/S026021051600005X
**Licence:** CC BY 4.0
**Canonical URL:** https://miklian.org/papers/moving-media-and-conflict-studies-beyond-the-cnn-effect

**Full text (PDF):** https://miklian.org/papers/moving-media-and-conflict-studies-beyond-the-cnn-effect/fulltext.pdf

## Abstract

After the 'CNN effect' concept was coined two decades ago, it quickly became a popular shorthand to understand media-conflict interactions. Although the connection has probably always been more complex than what was captured in the concept, research needs to be updated in order to better understand the multifaceted contemporary environments of both media and conflict. There are growing numbers and types of media sources, and multiple interactions between media and conflict actors, policymakers and engaged publics from the local to the global and back. We argue that understanding the impact of media reporting on conflict requires a new framework that captures the multilevel and hybrid media environments of contemporary conflicts. This study provides a roadmap of how to systematically unpack this environment. It describes and explains how different levels, interactions, and forms of news reporting shape conflicts and peacebuilding in local, national and regional contexts, and how international responses interact with multiple media narratives. With these tools, comprehensive understandings of contemporary local to global media interactions can be incorporated into new research on media and conflict.

**Keywords:** media and conflict, CNN effect, conflict reporting, hybrid media, peacebuilding, media narratives

## Key Messages

- Explaining how media reporting affects conflict requires a framework built for multilevel and hybrid media environments, which the original single-channel CNN effect does not capture.
- Media and conflict interact in several directions at once, across media sources, conflict actors, policymakers and engaged publics, running from local to global and back again.
- The article sets out a roadmap for unpacking that environment systematically, showing how different levels, interactions and forms of news reporting shape conflict and peacebuilding across local, national and regional contexts.

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## Citation

Gilboa, Eytan, Maria Gabrielsen Jumbert, Jason Miklian and Piers Robinson. "Moving media and conflict studies beyond the CNN effect." *Review of International Studies* 42(4), 2016, pp. 654-672. https://doi.org/10.1017/S026021051600005X

## About the Author

Jason Miklian is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM), University of Oslo. Full publication list: https://miklian.org/papers/