Measuring Peace in the Media Released

The second edition of our report "Measuring Peace in the Media" was launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month.

Download the full report here.

For the second year, the Institute for Economics and Peace and Media Tenor have analyzed global TV networks coverage of peace and violence issues using a fact-based approach which compares various measures from the Global Peace Index against Media Tenor’s database of global media.

The report explores the media coverage, or lack of coverage, of peace and conflict with a special emphasis on news themes that may help to create stable, peaceful societies. This edition of the report includes a case study of the Arab Spring and compares a timeline of major events to reporting on violence in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.

Launch of Measuring Peace in the Media at Davos:

Speakers at the launch of  Measuring Peace in the Media included: Ibrahim Negm, senior advisor to the Grand Mufti, Salil Shetty, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, the CEO of Media Tenor Roland Schatz and Steve Killelea, founder of the Institute for Economics and Peace.

Report highlights:

Over 160,000 news items from 31 news and current affairs programs that air on 4 continents were analysed. Each of the news networks covered on average 70 countries. The TV program with the broadest coverage was the BBC World Service which covered 119 countries.

Key findings:

• The only two networks which were either 50% accurate or more were SABC News @ One and ABC World News with 56% and 50% accuracy, respectively.
• The number violence reports aligned in direct proportion to the actual level of violence on the country being reported.
• The Arab Spring countries saw a rise in the number of reports, especially on topics such as ‘the functioning of government’ as well as war and violence.
• Based on the Structures of Peace taxonomy, critical topics such as the ‘Distribution of Resources’ received almost no coverage.
• Countries which have most declined in peacefulness received approximately thirteen times the level of coverage than countries which have most improved in peacefulness. 

Read more about Measuring Peace in the Media and download the full report here