Media

Media are important strategic channels for actors within conflict, peace, security and social processes – including governments, politicians, rebel groups, humanitarian aid organizations, and terrorists. Mass media, traditional media, digital media and ‘new media’ are platforms where actors try to harness media in their battle for winning 'hearts and minds'. But how do actors engage with their media environments? Do they see it merely as a platform? And how do media platforms affect social processes? Can media be a facilitator of change, or continuance? Of violence, or peace?

21/04/2023
Conference on Digital Designs – from Unique ID to CBDC

MIT-WPU/PRIO Conference

MIT-WPU in Pune, India, 1–2 November 2023

CALL FOR PAPERS

15/12/2021
Teuta Kukleci Successfully Defends Master's Thesis

Teuta Kukleci has successfully defended her master's thesis The “Low Road”: Ethnic Division and Bosnian Newspaper Coverage of Landmark Cases of Sexual Violence at the ICTY at the University of Oslo.

Congratulations to Teuta!

13/12/2021
Peace Science Infrastructure: PRIO to Head Large New Collaboration

Friday, we got to know that a large project has been funded by the Research Council of Norway's INFRASTRUKTUR initiative, that aims to build up relevant, up-to-date infrastructure that is accessible to the research community, to various private and public sector user groups, and to the general public.

24/06/2021
New Project on Online Dangerous Speech and Violence (ODAS)

The ambition of the ODAS project is to explain how online dangerous speech contributes to communal violence in Southeast Asia. The ultimate ambition of ODAS is to test a causal connection between dangerous online speech and violence. To do so, speech and violence data must be merged.

This is one out of five PRIO projects that today have received funding from the Research Council of Norway.

13/01/2021
New Article on Gendered Images of Us and Them in Anti-Islamic Facebook Groups

In the article, published in the journal Politics, Religion & Ideology, Katrine Fangen examines two anti-Islamic Facebook groups.

27/11/2020
Julie Marie Hansen Presents Paper on the Use of Social Media and the Prevention of SGBV

Julie Marie Hansen, Doctoral Researcher at PRIO, presented a paper at the international conference ‘Social Media in Armed Conflict’ on 25-26 November 2020.

24/07/2020
Extended deadline: Call for Papers: Social Media in Armed Conflict

The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and the Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security (MIPS) invite submissions of abstracts for papers to be presented at the Social Media in Armed Conflict conference, to be held on 25-26 November 2020. The conference will focus on the broad theme of social media and digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) in armed conflict and peace processes, with a particular focus on Myanmar. The deadline for submitting an abstract is now 28 August, 2020 (extended, see submission details below).

12/11/2019
PRIO founding member of the Forum on Information and Democracy

PRIO is one of eleven organizations from civil society who have created the Forum on Information and Democracy, a new international entity tasked with implementing the principles of the International Partnership on information & Democracy, an intergovernmental agreement signed by a coalition of 30 States on the margins of the UN General Assembly last September. It is the continuation of the international process launched by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in September 2018.

05/08/2019
PRIO Researcher Gives Talk on Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict

On 2 August, Julie Marie Hansen gave a talk about sexual violence in armed conflict at KSAS, Humanity Institute in Myitkyina, Myanmar. Hansen introduced current theories on the causes and consequences of conflict-related sexual violence, and an overview of efforts to prevent and mitigate the impact of this type of violence.

12/11/2018
New Blog on Women's Use of Facebook in Myanmar

With so much attention on the destructive role of Facebook in Myanmar, Doctoral Researcher Julie M. Hansen points out the constructive side of Facebook by bringing in examples of how women in Myanmar use of the social media platform. She writes:

"The spread of hate speech and misinformation online that incites real-life violence are serious issues that deserve the media attention they have received, and the tech community must prioritise finding a solution. Yet, for a fuller understanding of the role of Facebook – which has become such a dominant tool in Myanmar for information and communication that is almost synonymous with the internet – we should also recognise the platform’s constructive side. And this becomes apparent when we look at how the social media platform is used by women."