The Role of Peace Journalism in Mitigating Violence in Afghanistan: A Journalist’s Perspective

This research explores the role of peace journalism in mitigating violence in Afghanistan by examining the perspectives of Kabul’s Journalists. The study has two main objectives: to understand how peace journalism can help mitigate various forms of violence (structural, cultural, direct, ethnic, and religious) in Afghanistan and to assess the level of familiarity among journalists in Kabul with the concept of peace journalism. The study framework incorporates the theories of agenda-setting, gatekeeping, and Galtung’s peace journalism model. A survey method was employed for the research, and data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaires were distributed to 287 journalists working in Kabul's media selected through a multi-stage cluster sampling method. According to statistics provided by media support organizations, are 1,011 journalists actively working in Kabul. Using Cochran's formula, the required sample size was determined to be 278; thus, this number of questionnaires was distributed and successfully collected. The research findings indicated that employing peace journalism in media reporting can reduce violence in Afghanistan. However, the study reveals that journalists in Kabul have limited familiarity with peace journalism. Additionally, there is a significant positive relationship between journalists’ educational levels, work experience, and familiarity with peace journalism. The research further highlights that peace journalism can reduce structural, cultural, and direct violence in Afghanistan. However, it has little to no impact on mitigating ethnic and religious violence in the country.