Potential for Peace Journalism? : Exploring the factors that influenced the coverage of Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition protests

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Potential for Peace Journalism?

Exploring the factors that influenced the coverage of

Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition protests

Maike Julie Hansen

Peace and Conflict Studies Bachelor’s Degree

15 Credits Spring 2020

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Abstract

The coverage of news media on conflicts increasingly became the subject of criticism, accused of sensationalism, oversimplification, and underrepresentation of certain issues. While recognizing that it is the journalists and editors that make choices regarding the collection and framing of the stories and accounts published in newspapers and digital media outlets, this thesis sets to understand these choices against the background of the web of structural constraints pertaining to professional, organizational, economic and political contexts of their work. Drawing on a theoretical perspective of Peace Journalism and Bläsi’s model of factors influencing conflict-coverage, this thesis explores what factors influenced the coverage of Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition protests and how they can be seen as hindrances or facilitators for Peace Journalism.

The study presents the results of a qualitative content analysis of material obtained through semi-structured expert interviews with four journalists who covered the protests on-site. The findings display that factors pertaining to the journalistic system, personal features of the journalist, lobbies, conflict situation on-site, public climate, and audience were playing a significant role in shaping the news production throughout the Anti-Extradition protests. A majority of these factors were identified as limiting rather than facilitating Peace Journalism. This study suggests that in order to have a relevant and lasting impact, Peace Journalism needs to formulate strategies that consider the realities journalists face on the ground and factors influencing conflict coverage that pose limitations to its practice.

Keywords: Conflict coverage, Peace Journalism, War Journalism, Hong Kong Anti-Extradition protests, news production process

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Acknowledgments

I will begin this thesis by saying thank you to the wonderful journalists who took the time to share their experiences with me. Thank you for enabling me to write this thesis and filling it with life.

I would like to thank my supervisor Maja Povrzanović Frykman, for supporting me throughout this process with expertise and encouragement, and for reminding me that doubt is a steady part of scientific work.

Lastly, I am grateful for my family and fellow PACSies for being a source of inspiration and unwavering support.

Naturally, I carry full responsibility for any misrepresentations or shortcomings of this study.

Cover photo: Close-up of a poster hanging in a tunnel in Tsim Sha Tsui (Hong

Kong), depicting inter alia journalists covering the protests. Artist: Childe Abaddon (Photo by author September 28, 2019).

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List of Abbreviations

DCA Directed Content Analysis

HKJA Hong Kong Journalists Association

PACS Peace and Conflict Studies

PolyU Hong Kong Polytechnic University

SAR Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (of the People's Republic of China)

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1 Introduction

I spent the fall semester of 2019 in Hong Kong. After I returned home to Germany, one of the first persons I met was my 70-year-old neighbor. We talked shortly before he offered his opinion on the developments in Hong Kong:

“I understand they want democracy, but why are they vandalizing and destroying the city? That doesn’t resemble peaceful protests anymore. They shouldn’t be too surprised if China comes in with the army soon.”

His statement and comparable views of people around me left me speechless and confused – why was their perception of the situation in Hong Kong so different than mine? How did they get the impression that the whole city turned into a warzone? Overall, I witnessed a lack of empathy - for why some protesters were becoming violent, for their situation overall and its possible outcomes.

While the reporting of German news outlets seemed to imply general sympathy for the cause of the protests, it was cluttered with burning train stations, deafening police sirens, and violent confrontations between protesters and riot police. But where was the focus on voices explaining the ‘why’? Where were the peaceful sit-ins I witnessed almost every day when walking through the metro station on my way to university? The overall complexity of the situation and emotions of those affected? After seeing the coverage, the perceptions of the people I talked to no longer surprised me.

This anecdote portrays the problem of current news-reporting on conflict. The dominant discourse of war reporting often follows an approach of if it bleeds, it leads, prioritizing violent escalations of conflicts while marginalizing peace initiatives and portraying conflicts as zero-sum games (Lynch and McGoldrick, 2005:5). As a result, these “patterns of omission and distortion in the reporting of conflicts not only leave the public misinformed, but usually lead us to overvalue reactive, violent responses – and to undervalue developmental, non-violent ones” (ibid.). So, what is Peace Journalism and why is it needed? Peace Journalism is

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conducted when journalists “make choices – of what stories to report and about how to report them- that create opportunities for society at large to consider and value non-violent responses to conflict”, to enable empathy and an enhanced understanding of the conflict itself and its roots (Lynch and McGoldrick,2005:5). According to Galtung (2002:267), who was the first to theorize the notion of Peace Journalism, “any journalist can practice Peace Journalism, just as anyone can practice War Journalism” – but is that really the case?

1.1 Research Problem

A defining element of Peace Journalism is that it is constructed as a kind of blueprint, a “global standard for reporting conflict” (Lynch, 2014). However, that also implies that it does not account for any context-specific challenges and constraints that could impact its practice. It places the responsibility on journalists to reform conventional war reporting. Journalists are however caught in a web of structural constraints, such as professional, institutional, economic, and political pressures, that pose limitations on their autonomy on what to report and how to report it (Hackett, 2006). Bläsi (2004:1) stresses that the factors that influence news production must be studied “in order to learn about the actual preconditions of any effort of constructive conflict coverage”. To facilitate a shift towards Peace Journalism, the factors enabling or hindering its practice must be identified and understood. This thesis consequently directs its attention towards the professional experience of journalists in a conflict setting, and to the factors they describe to have an influence on the news production process.

Existing empirical research concerning Peace Journalism often focusses on the news-content itself as well as audiences. It is, however, rarely explored how those on the other end, who are producing the news, work in relation to Peace or War Journalism. Through exploring the realities that journalists in Hong Kong have faced while reporting on the Anti-Extradition protests and the processes and conditions behind the news production, this thesis strives to contribute to filling this research gap.

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1.2 Aim and Research Questions

The overarching purpose of this thesis is to critically examine how the theoretical model of Peace Journalism relates to the on-the-ground reality of journalists reporting on conflict. Specifically, I aim to identify and explore the factors journalists describe to have influenced the coverage on the Anti-Extradition protests. Further, I aim to understand how these factors can be seen as hindrances or facilitators for Peace Journalism.

While doing so with regard to the context of recent protests in Hong Kong, I do not position the journalists as passive and only dependent on the structures they are part of, but I am interested in the structural impacts and any other factors that may impede their professional autonomy.1

Correspondingly, the study engages the research question:

What factors influenced the coverage of the Anti-Extradition protests and how can they be seen as hindering or facilitating Peace Journalism?

The first set of operational questions guiding the analysis is grounded in Bläsi’s (2004) model of factors influencing conflict coverage:

• What factors do journalists that covered the Anti-Extradition protests describe as influences on their reporting, pertaining to a) the journalistic system, b) personal features of the journalist, c) lobbies, d) conflict situation on-site, e) public climate, and f) audience?

The final operational question serves to explore the identified factors in light of Peace Journalism:

• How can the identified factors be understood as hindrances or facilitators for Peace Journalism?

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1.3 Relevance to Peace and Conflict Studies

Structural and direct violence are both reinforced and fed by cultural violence (Galtung,1990). Lukacovic (2016:7) emphasizes that “mass media are a part of culture but also a co-creator of culture” and can thus function as co-creators and disseminators of culturally violent elements. Media coverage and representation of conflicts are an integral part of Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) as they can influence, in various ways, how conflicts are perceived on the ‘homefront’ and by a wider international audience (Lynch, 2014). Consequently, depending on the perception of conflicts, issues such as legitimacy of violence (or non-violence) move into the foreground. Research has revealed how the media can fuel conflicts, distort the public understanding, and shape international responses to conflicts itself (Erbaysal Filibeli and İnceoğlu,2018:2). Responses to these concerns have resulted in the formation of Peace Journalism, which itself is a product of PACS and a direct result of the criticism towards conventional war reporting. Thus, exploring which factors in a particular conflict setting contribute or hinder Peace Journalism is highly relevant for PACS.

Furthermore, since the Cold War’s end (and the introduction of concepts such as cultural violence) PACS have enlarged their attention from traditional armed conflict to issues such as human security, social movements, social justice, sustainability, etcetera (Gleditsch, 2014). The Anti-Extradition protests in Hong Kong are hereafter a PACS relevant context to be studied, constituting a social movement which developed violent escalations.

1.4 Delimitations

This study is subjected to certain limitations. First of all, as the findings are based on in-depth interviews with four participants, the study is too small in scope to make wider generalizations about the professional experience and working conditions for journalists that have covered the Anti-Extradition protests. However, as this thesis is exploratory and based on a qualitative research design,

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it is not searching for general answers and conclusions but is interested in the subjective perceptions of the participants.

Lohner and Banjac (2015:5) point out that “most of the theoretical concepts in journalism studies are related to Western democracies and hegemonic within the context of the global scholarly field of journalism studies”. Consequently, the theoretical framework used in this thesis is limited to theories related to conflict journalism that are Western-centric, which poses limitations to some extent as they are applied to a non-Western context. However, the research design promises an opening towards overcoming this limitation, as the data is analyzed deductively and inductively, leaving room to explore experiences and perceptions that are presumably not part of the grounding of the applied theories.

While English is one of the official languages in Hong Kong, the most commonly spoken language is Cantonese. Since I do not speak Cantonese, this study could have missed perspectives unique to Cantonese literature and was limited to academic literature in English and German. Further, the selection of interviewees was limited to English-speaking journalists (producing content mainly for outlets publishing in English) representing only a part of the diverse media landscape in Hong Kong.

1.5 Thesis Outline

This thesis is divided into seven chapters. This chapter sought to provide the reader with an introduction to the study, presenting the research problem, aims, and research questions. Furthermore, this chapter enclosed the study’s limitations and relevance to the field of PACS. The following chapter presents an overview of the Anti-Extradition protests in Hong Kong and discusses the state of Hong Kong’s news media in light of the protests. Chapter three entails an overview of previous research concerning Peace Journalism and journalists reporting on conflict. The theoretical framework, comprising Bläsi’s model of factors influencing conflict coverage, is outlined in chapter four, followed by chapter five presenting the methodological framework of this study. Chapter six encloses the

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analysis, divided into sub-chapters relating to the operational questions. The final chapter presents concluding remarks as well as pointers for future research.

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2 Background

This chapter provides a background of the Anti-Extradition protests and outlines Hong Kong’s current media situation. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) became the scene of large-scale protests in 2019, here referred to as the Anti-Extradition protests. The protests continued for months, with an increasing level of violent clashes between police and protesters. While there are concrete incidents that triggered the protests, they can be seen as an escalation of wider, underlying frustrations related to broader political, economic, and social issues that built up for years2.

2.1 The Anti-Extradition Protests

Mass protests sparked off in 2019 as a result of the SAR Government’s proposed extradition law amendment bill. The bill, establishing extradition agreements between Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China, was met with criticism as “Hong Kong residents and visitors could be detained in Mainland China, and be subjected to its jurisdiction and legal system, thereby inhibiting Hong Kong’s granted autonomy and civil liberties” (Ku, 2020:111-112). The Anti-Extradition protests exceeded the initial demand to withdraw the bill (which was annulled in September 2019), moving towards central themes of institutional reforms and universal suffrage3 (Ku, 2020:112).

2_{A detailed account of the developments that led to the current situation in Hong Kong can be found in}

Appendix 1.

3_{The protests circulated around five key demands: an independent inquiry into police brutality, withdrawing the}

classification of the protests as ‘riots’, amnesty for arrested protesters, and universal suffrage for the election of the legislative council and the Chief Executive (CE) along with the resignation of current CE Carrie Lam (Lee, et al., 2019:10).

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Due to the geographical decentralization of protest events and the “mobilization of conventional life spaces and cultural repertoires as protest tactics” (Choi, 2020:1), the daily life and protests started to merge. The protests surpassed the scale and duration of previous pro-democracy movements (e.g. Umbrella Movement) by far. The protests commenced already in March 2019 but gathered momentum in June, reaching a turnout of one million people June 9 and two million on June 16, 2019 (Ku, 2020:112).

While the Umbrella Movement was largely peaceful, the Anti-Extradition protests encompassed an increasing level of violent clashes between police and protesters. Although peaceful initiatives did not cease throughout, Ku (2020:112) mentions the shift in movement strategy from pacifism to increased militancy, as the public increasingly lost faith in the success of non-violence. The events have also been marked by an increasing occurrence of police brutality, not only towards the protesters but further towards journalists, outlined in section 2.2.

As of December 2019, more than 6000 protesters between the ages of 11 and 84 were arrested, 40 percent of which were students (Cheng, 2019). Crowd control weapons (such as water cannons, tear gas canisters, rubber bullets, sponge grenades, and beanbag rounds) were fired around 30,000 times within the six-months period (ibid.). The events have deepened pre-existing polarization within the city. While some perceive that civil and political liberties must be defended and consequently support the movement, others reject it and criticize the protests’ negative effect on the economy, Hong Kong’s international status, and public safety. After February 2020 the protests lost momentum due to the Covid-19 outbreak, albeit signs of re-emergence throughout the year.4

4_{Although it could be argued that the Anti-Extradition protests are still ongoing (as of October 2020), they can}

be seen as part of the larger pro-democracy movement. Hence, I will refer to the Anti-Extradition protests as an event of the past throughout this thesis.

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2.2 Hong Kong Media in the Protests

A SAR Government report published in October 2019 states that Hong Kong possesses a “healthy and outward-looking press, radio and television industry that enjoys complete freedom of expression” (GovHK,2019:1). Given its position as a major international media center in Asia, Hong Kong’s media landscape has a vast array of domestic and international media outlets, the majority being Chinese-language outlets, closely followed by English-language and bilingual outlets (ibid.).

Nonetheless, concerns have been raised regarding the freedom of the press. In the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders, Hong Kong fell from rank 18 in 2002 to rank 80 in 2020 (RSF, 2020). As many media houses are owned by businesspeople with commercial interest in Mainland China, self-censorship and editorial pressure have been a growing concern (Maheshwari, 2014:193). Au (2017:7) states that Hongkongers have consequently started losing trust in traditional local media outlets.

The aforementioned concerns have deepened in light of the current protests: in their annual report of 2019, the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) criticized the deliberate targeting of journalists during the protests by the police force and stated that already by June 175, a complaint was filed regarding “over 27 cases of alleged violence or harassment against reporters and other media personnel covering extradition bill protests” (HKJA, 2019:4). Throughout the protests, safety became an increasing concern: incidents were reported of journalists being shot with tear gas from a short range, being harmed, having their equipment destroyed with batons and being chased away from the scene with batons and shields (ibid.:4). In one incident, the journalist Veby Mega Indah was blinded by a rubber bullet that hit her right eye (Lau, 2019). There have also been incidents of pro-Beijing media outlets being targeted by protesters (Graham-Harrison, 2019).

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Many journalists were critical towards the proposed extradition agreement, with concerns that it could be utilized against media actors and “give an opportunity for Chinese authorities to seize bloggers, journalists or any defender of free expression in Hong Kong” (Creery, 2019). Apart from traditional media, the role of social media played an essential role in the movement, especially in terms of “coordination, communication and mobilization” (Lee, Chen, and Chan, 2016:457) of the current protest, reaffirming the growing importance of social media in social movements globally.

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3 Previous Research

This chapter offers an overview of previously conducted research concerning Peace Journalism and research regarding journalists’ own perceptions of their roles, ideals and working conditions in conflict. In addition to displaying the current state of research in the field, this study is positioned.

3.1 Peace Journalism Versus War Journalism

The norms of conventional, objective journalism are the same during conflict and peacetime: the journalist is an impartial observer, detached from the conflict, and has the role to inform the public through reporting the facts in an objective manner (Meier, 2007:185). This dominant ideology of journalism however faces critique that denounces the role of journalists as impartial entities, arguing that journalism is constructing reality and not merely reflecting it, as selective choices are made which facts are being reported and how they are framed (Weaver, 2007:142-147; Lynch and McGoldrick, 2005:xvi). Consequently, journalists become actors within the conflicts they cover as their decisions on what receives media focus and what is excluded inevitably affect the development of a conflict. Different forms of coverage can contribute to the escalation or de-escalation of conflicts and further influence how international audiences understand particular conflicts (ibid.; Shoemaker and Reese, 1996:36; Puddephat, 2006:10).

The critique of conventional war reporting yielded a theoretical framing of Peace Journalism (Lynch and McGoldrick,2005). The roots of Peace Journalism stem from a study conducted by Galtung and Ruge (1965), which provided an analysis of what makes foreign news ‘newsworthy’. The authors criticized that the content of foreign news coverage was highly prejudiced and stressed the need for alternative practices, later labeled Peace Journalism (ibid.; Lukacovic, 2016:1). The model is defined in direct opposition to the characteristics of War Journalism.

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War Journalism is characterized by oversimplification: it focusses on the conflict arena (two parties, one goal), and is fixated on visible effects of violence, such as physical injuries, deaths, and material destruction (Lynch and McGoldrick, 2005:6). The reporting is event-based and reactive, meaning that it is focused on violent escalations without contextualization, while the causes and outcomes of the conflict remain unexplored (ibid.). Furthermore, War Journalism is propaganda-oriented, dehumanizing, and highlights differences among the conflict-parties. Pertaining to its zero-sum approach, it is victory-oriented, implying that peace is achieved when one party wins. Lastly, it is elite-orientated. Due to following the principle of objectivity, news give privileged access to the accounts of official spokespersons, mostly “able-bodied elite males” (ibid.:6), while neglecting non-official, and particularly minority, voices.

Contrarily, Peace Journalism seeks and explores complexity: it portrays the conflict formation (numerous parties and goals) and focusses on invisible effects of violence such as psychological or sociocultural harm (ibid.:6). The reporting is process-based and proactive, meaning that it occurs before violent escalations and contextualizes violence when it takes place. Further, the background, causes, and outcomes of the conflict are explored (ibid.:6). All stages of the conflict are of importance, including post-conflict stages. Peace Journalism further aims at providing a platform for all parties and creates empathy and understanding, while revealing untruths and wrongdoings on all sides (ibid.). Hence, while war-journalism is characterized by omission, Peace Journalism aims at transparency (ibid.:6). It considers similarities, and is people-orientated, meaning that grassroots sources are seen as equally important as official sources. It provides the room to explore how violence affects the day-to-day life of people and which solutions to the conflict they propose (ibid.:240). Lastly, instead of allowing a victory orientation, Peace Journalism is solution-oriented, by paying attention to peaceful stories and initiatives (ibid.).

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3.2 Challenges for Peace Journalism

While Peace Journalism is met with much approval from the academic field and media practitioners, it is also confronted with critique. One main critique condemns the model for being too detached from the reality of conflict reporting as it is too dualistic. Conflict journalism is diverse, has often features of both War and Peace Journalism, and cannot be clustered into merely two categories (Loyn, 2007:6; Ottosen, 2010). Kempf (2007a:7) criticizes the implied ‘advocacy role’ of journalists implied in the model and proposes that while a shift from the violence-focused War Journalism would be desirable, journalists should remain objective and detached to not compromise accuracy, a view further shared by Loyn (2003) and Hanitzsch (2007:3). Lastly, a major critique has been directed at the Peace Journalism model for being too individualistic, as it is underestimating the structural conditions of news-production under which journalists and editors operate (Hanitzsch, 2007; Hackett, 2006; Fawcett, 2002). Various theories exist, such as the hierarchy of influences model (Shoemaker and Reese, 1996), the propaganda model (Herman and Chomsky, 1988) or gatekeeping theory (Shoemaker, 2009), that all, by looking at different aspects, outline factors existing inside and outside media-structures that have particular influences on the news-process and reporting.

The criticism regarding the individualistic nature of Peace Journalism has been taken up in empirical research. Şahin and Ross (2012:1) found that Peace Journalism “which assumes relative autonomy for journalists, fails to offer effective tools to journalists who do not enjoy such freedom” and neglects challenges related to national attachments: unlike foreign journalists, local journalists “cannot simply step outside their nationally determined views on the conflict” (ibid.:7-8). Findings from a study performed by Erbaysal Filibeli and İnceoğlu (2018), exhibited that obstacles to the implementation of Peace Journalism in Turkey include the relationship between power, media, and ownership; the absence of media pluralism;censorship; and self-censorship.

Examining the practicality of Peace Journalism is the research field in which this thesis is positioned. Since research on Peace Journalism is largely based on normative reasoning, a gap exists regarding empirical research (Hanitzsch, 2004).

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Existent empirical research on Peace Journalism has been predominantly focused on the analysis of news content, primarily through content analyses on newspaper articles (Lynch,2013:19). Further research has included experimental studies on how Peace and War Journalism is perceived by the audience, how it affects their understanding of a conflict and empathy towards involved actors as well as the psychological effects (Kempf, 2007b; McGoldrick and Lynch, 2014; McGoldrick, 2009). A gap can be identified, that while existing research about Peace Journalism often focusses on news content and audiences, it is rarely explored how those producing the news, such as journalists and editors, work in relation to Peace or War Journalism. As noted by Lynch (2013:19), further (and particularly qualitative) research is needed in examining the conditions for individual journalists reporting on conflicts, addressing the facilitators and constraints they face. This thesis seeks to contribute to closing this research gap.

3.3 Journalists Reporting on Conflict

I now turn to the research on journalists’ own perceptions of their roles, ideals and working conditions in conflicts. Lohner and Banjac (2016) conducted an interview study with 100 journalists from Egypt, Kenya, Serbia, and South Africa. It revealed that the journalists understood themselves as watchdogs, as investigators and teachers that contextualize the conflicts, as agents for social change that capture the voice of the voiceless, and as agents for peace (ibid.:1). Moreover, although these authors discovered that balanced, objective and truthful reporting were primary ethical values, they were often heavily impacted by personal biases (ibid.). The study concluded that the specific national contexts and structural conditions profoundly impact the work practices, role-perceptions, and ethics of journalists, but that there seem to exist cross-national similarities in journalistic routines, roles, and values (ibid.).

This view is supported by Willnat, Weaver, and Choi (2013), who conducted a survey study with 29,000 journalists from 31 nations and territories. They concluded that journalists indeed share certain attitudes and perceptions across nations, yet working conditions, material resources, professional autonomy,

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political pressure, and journalistic norms affect the journalists’ approaches heavily (ibid.: 6).

A survey study by Hanitzsch and Mellado (2011) established that journalists from 18 different countries perceived procedural and professional influences as the most important influence on their work, followed by organizational and economic influences, influences from reference groups, and political factors (ibid.: 419). The perceived relevance of political and economic influences differed greatly based on the national context (ibid.:416).

Lohner and Banjac (2017:2) conducted a study following up on their previous work (Lohner and Banjac, 2016) that recognized that structural conditions of journalism are possibly “challenging journalistic ideals in practice”. This study investigated the existence and impact of structural conditions on journalists’ roles, performance, and potential for conflict-sensitive reporting6 (ibid.). The findings displayed that major structural constraints consist inter alia of repressive legal frameworks, limited media freedom, political and economic pressure, safety-related constraints, insufficient training on conflict-sensitive reporting, time constraints, understaffing, and financial insecurity (ibid.:17). Lohner and Banjac (ibid.) concluded that these factors are counterproductive influences on the realization of normative ideals and the potential for conflict-sensitive reporting (ibid.).

Though differing slightly in their findings, existing empirical studies relevant to this thesis show that while there are similarities across country-contexts, role-perceptions, ideals and working conditions for journalists are not globally uniform, and differ profoundly dependent on economic, political, historical, and context-specific aspects. Thus, it is vital to examine specific contexts to understand the “realities journalists deal with on the ground, and the journalistic processes behind news production” (Myöhänen, 2018:2). While there have been specific studies about role-perceptions among Hong Kong journalists, their professional values, and working conditions (Willnat, Weaver and Choi, 2013; Serban, 2019; Yeung, 2019), no research has been conducted yet regarding factors

6_{Conflict-sensitive reporting, conflict-constructive coverage and Peace Journalism are closely related terms}

(sometimes used interchangebly) that describe a standard of reporting that is solution-orientated and utilizes fairness and de-escalating language to report on crises, conflicts and wars (Kirchhoff, 2016:1).

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influencing the journalists’ reporting pertaining to aspects inside and outside the media structure in one cohesive study, in particular, none that is focusing on the context of the Anti-Extradition protests. This study thus offers a small, yet novel contribution to empirical research pertaining to these issues in the context of Hong Kong.

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4 Theoretical Framework

This chapter presents the theoretical framework, which serves as a lens through which the material is analyzed and interpreted. As previous research has demonstrated, a multitude of factors exist that shape the working conditions of journalists and impact the potential for Peace Journalism. In this thesis, Bläsi’s (2004) model of factors influencing conflict coverage was chosen to formulate the first set of operational questions concerning the factors shaping the coverage of the Anti-Extradition protests. Peace Journalism, on the other hand, is utilized as a theoretical lens to interpret the identified factors. Peace Journalism itself can be understood as a movement aimed at reforming global journalism and its news-values. This thesis, however, makes use of its theoretical aspects (which were outlined in chapter 3.1) based on the analytical model outlined in Lynch and McGoldrick’s book “Peace Journalism” (2005), which builds on Galtung’s initial conceptualizations.

4.1 Model of Factors Influencing Conflict Coverage

The main reason for choosing Bläsi’s model is not only that it includes an empirically based, comprehensive framework of factors influencing conflict coverage, but further that it was established in relation to Peace Journalism. Bläsi (2004:1) suggests that Peace Journalism will “remain irrelevant for the practical work of journalists unless it is connected to the reality of today’s media”. Accordingly, he argued for the need of examining influences shaping the news-production process to determine which pre-conditions need to be taken into account for an effort towards Peace Journalism. Based on previous media research and thirty expert interviews with German journalists reporting on conflict, he established a model of six factors influencing conflict coverage. stating that “any factor that influences conflict coverage also has aspects that can impede the

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realization of peace journalism” (Bläsi, 2004:11). Consequently, this model was selected to help identify influences shaping the coverage of the Anti-Extradition protests.

The factors presented here constitute the categories and sub-categories guiding the content analysis of the interview data. The factors have no chronological order and are not mutually exclusive as they interact and influence each other. After defining each factor, I will shortly outline how they can be interpreted in light of Peace Journalism, to clarify the interpretation process of how I determined if the factors identified in my interview material were hindering or facilitating Peace Journalism7.

The first factor consists of the journalistic system, comprising structural aspects of the media such as “type of media, existing formats and spaces, editorial strategies and procedures, organizational structures, publishers’ expectations and impact, criteria of news selection, media economy and legal parameters” (Bläsi, 2004:5). When there is for instance a lack of time and space, Peace Journalism is difficult to conduct as it requires complexity in the depiction of the conflict and thorough contextualization (Bläsi, 2006:64).

The second factor encompasses the individual features of the journalist, which Bläsi (2009:2) describes as an “almost self-evident” influence as coverage is shaped by journalists’ “personal attitudes, values, beliefs, motivation, experience, and conflict competence”. A journalist with the motivation to use war as a “stepping-stone in their career” (ibid.:4) and engages in sensationalism would be more likely to conduct War Journalism, thus this motivation would be a hindrance for Peace Journalism.

Another factor entails lobbies, information management, and propaganda. This category entails the attempt of entities (such as policymakers, military, non-governmental organizations, and churches) to control how they are covered by media, by for instance providing their own interpretations of events (Bläsi, 2004:5). This can inter alia result in limited access to certain places or persons, inaccurate or misleading reports, and withholding of information (ibid.). It is a

7_{The examples I present here are not part of the model as such but merely examples Bläsi is using to}

demonstrate how factors can be seen as counterproductive or facilitating for Peace Journalism. Their hindering or facilitating effects are not solely based on their presence but depend on the context.

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hindering pre-condition for Peace Journalism if a conflict party can establish their interpretation of events by blocking certain locations for journalists or censoring them, making it impossible to check and refute information (Bläsi, 2006:153).

The fourth factor, situation on-site, entails all aspects relevant to the conditions in the conflict-zone itself, such as “the access to places or sources, infrastructure, censorship, restrictions on journalistic activities, security and personal safety” (Bläsi, 2009:2). If journalists are experiencing severe safety hazards or censorship, a peace-oriented coverage is hard to realize (Bläsi, 2009:4).

The fifth factor comprises the public climate (in one country regarding conflict elsewhere), manifested in public attention given to the conflict and the scope of coverage, the diversity of opinions, polarization, and attitude towards dissenters of the dominant opinion (Bläsi, 2009:2). Public interest in a conflict can be positive for Peace Journalism due to more space for news related to it. However, when there is an official war discourse journalists can face sanctions for questioning and diverging from this agenda (ibid.:4).

Lastly, the audience forms the sixth factor influencing conflict-coverage. News-media content is in the end a product that needs paying consumers. The audience consequently determines the coverage to some extent, for instance, which topics tend to be included or excluded (Bläsi, 2004:5). This factor includes the recipients’ “interests, expectations, habits, and purchasing behavior” (Bläsi, 2009:2). An audience that is impartial towards a conflict and its parties constitutes a facilitator for Peace Journalism due to generally being more open to solution-oriented coverage (Bläsi, 2009:4).

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5 Methodology

In this chapter, the methodological framework of the study is introduced. I chose a qualitative research design as it enables me to grasp and explore the participants’ subjective voices and views on the coverage of the Anti-Extradition protests in Hong Kong (Creswell, 2009:8). Correspondingly, I make use of material that I have collected through semi-structured expert interviews with journalists that reported on the protests in Hong Kong. The material is analyzed with a directed content analysis based on Bläsi’s (2004) model and interpreted in light of Peace Journalism. This chapter outlines the data collection, material, the data analysis, and finishes with ethical considerations of the research and the positioning of the researcher. Throughout, I reflect on the choice of methods and offer a transparent account of the limitations the chosen methods created for my research.

5.1 Semi-structured Expert Interviews

The data was collected through semi-structured expert interviews. Expert interviews are conducted with persons possessing specific knowledge about the subject under study, due to their particular professional position or experience (Gläser and Laudel, 2010:12). The interview participants are mediums that give the researcher insight about a particular issue, rather than being the object under study (ibid.). In this case, the experts who serve as sources of specific knowledge are journalists who reported on-site on the Anti-Extradition protests in Hong Kong. The interviews focused only on their professional experience as journalists during the protests.

The interviews were semi-structured, following a list of topics through an interview guide, while still applying open-ended questions and leaving room to follow new leads (Bernard, 2006:212). Semi-structured interviews were chosen since they are particularly suitable when there is only one chance to interview the

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participant and facilitate making efficient use of the time available (ibid.). Additionally, semi-structured interviews were fitting as they, unlike surveys which provide pre-determined responses, enable new insights to emerge by offering the flexibility to go beyond the interview guide (Kolb, 2008:144).

The interview guide8 was designed according to the theoretical framework of Peace Journalism9_{. Due to the growing awareness of Peace Journalism, the term}

was not used in the information letter nor the interviews, as it could have caused participants to “answer in ways to appear objective and unbiased” (Neumann and Fahmy, 2019:18).

Due to the current pandemic, traveling to Hong Kong to conduct the interviews proved unfeasible. Consequently, telephone interviews were conducted, which entailed certain advantages and disadvantages. The telephone connection posed a challenge at times, leading to frequent interruptions and difficulties understanding the participants due to background noises. Hence there was a frequent need for clarification, which however ultimately did not pose too much of a hindrance. The main advantage of conducting telephone interviews was that it enabled both me and the participant to be in a comfortable environment of our own choosing. The interviews were audio-recorded with the participants’ consent and later transcribed.10

5.2 Selection of Participants

Participants were chosen due to their expert knowledge of reporting on the Anti-Extradition protests on-site in Hong Kong. Gaining access was complex: Journalists whom I contacted by e-mail without having a mutual contact who forwarded me did not respond. Consequently, this study relied on snowball-sampling. I met one participant during a conference in February 2020. Access to the remaining participants was gained through a pre-established contact from my

8_{Appendix 2}

9_{Since Bläsi’s model was only chosen after the first interviews as the basis for the content analysis.}

10_{While transcribing, I recognized that I had misunderstood certain expressions or words during the interviews,}

which changed the entire meaning of certain statements. This points to the importance of recording, personally transcribing and reflecting on the content of the interviews to identify misunderstandings.

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exchange university in Hong Kong, who can be identified as my “gatekeeper” (Creswell, 2009:125).

The final sample includes four participants, all professional journalists who covered the Anti-Extradition protests on-site between June and December 2019. A professional journalist is defined here as “a person who works (as an employee or freelancer) for journalistic media and is involved in producing and editing journalistic content or is otherwise in editorial supervision and coordination” (Lohner, 2019:79). The participants will be described in general terms to safeguard their identities. They vary in age, national background, years of experience, and medium. The sample includes two local journalists from Hong Kong, one from Singapore, and one from Mainland China. One of the journalists is working as a freelancer focused on text and visual content, another as a correspondent for an international news agency in Hong Kong. The remaining two participants are video journalists: one is employed by an international news agency in Hong Kong, the other is working as a freelancer.

The sample is not representative in relation to gender, as all participants are female. However, as this study is of qualitative nature, it does not aim at representativity. A male perspective could have nevertheless been beneficial as gender-specific differences could have been explored.

5.3 Material

The interviews, which were conducted between April 13 and May 4, 2020, served as the primary source of data. Each interview lasted around 70 minutes, resulting in a total 4,5 hours of recorded data. The transcription produced 41 pages of text which provided the textual material that was analyzed11. The data presents the participants’ subjective perceptions and opinions and does not rely on facts or evidence-based data. However, as this research attempts to understand which factors journalists describe to influence their work, the subjectivity of the material

11_{From the direct quotes included in the thesis I removed minor grammatical errors, repetitions, and filler words}

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does not pose a limitation. Nevertheless, as none of the participants were employed for a pro-Beijing outlet, there is a chance that the material is lacking different perspectives since journalists working for these outlets might experience different influences on their work.

5.4 Data Analysis Method

To make sense of the collected data in light of the theoretical framework, a directed content analysis (DCA) was applied. Hsieh and Shannon (2005: 1277) describe it as an approach to qualitative content analysis, utilized to interpret the meaning emerging from the content of textual data. Contrasting conventional content analysis in which codes are derived from the data, the researcher commences by deciding on a theory that serves as a basis for initial codes (ibid.). However, data that is relevant for the phenomenon under study but does not fall into the codes, is nevertheless identified to determine if it constitutes a new category (ibid.:1282). Hence the research process is both deductive and inductive, as it starts with an initial theoretical framework but leaves room to explore new leads (ibid.:1283). That ultimately shows the main advantage of the DCA, as it allows to either contradict or further “refine, extend and enrich the theory” (ibid.:1283). Qualitative content analyses depart from the position that “simply because a topic occurs fewer times does not mean that it is a lesser topic” (Williamson, et al., 2018:463) and hence avoid relying solely on quantifying dominant themes.

The coding framework was developed in line with Bläsi’s (2004) model of factors influencing conflict coverage. As presented in chapter 4.1, the model is already articulated in main categories (six factors) and sub-categories (indicators of the factors), which could easily be transferred into a coding matrix.12 I took notes after each interview to capture my first impressions. After transcribing, I highlighted all text-passages that appeared to describe factors influencing the coverage. The highlighted passages were then coded with the matrix

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encompassing the predetermined categories. The highlighted text that could not be coded with the matrix was labeled as a new category according to the factor of influence it described (e.g. national belonging). To ensure consistency, I repeated the content analysis two months after with both the initial and inductively identified categories and arrived at similar results while refining some of the categories.

The identified factors and their effect on the coverage were then interpreted with the Peace Journalism model to determine if they hinder or facilitate its practice (as illustrated in chapter 4.1). Direct quotes from the participants were embedded in chapter 6, to “give participants a voice in the outcomes while contributing to the credibility and transparency of the research” (Roller, 2020:8).

5.5 Ethical Considerations

Ethical considerations play a significant role in this study as it oversees sensitive data of the participants. The participants constitute a vulnerable group since journalists have historically been exposed to threats and violence for voicing opinions and bringing information to the public. The study is situated within a politically tense context. Particularly after the introduction of the new national security law in June 2020, the current state of press freedom and freedom of speech in Hong Kong is unclear. As the researcher, I bear full responsibility that no one is negatively affected by the research project by ensuring the protection of the participants and shielding the data from possible misconduct13 (Creswell, 2009:89). I have done my best to live up to this responsibility by taking the following measures:

Information about the participants and collected data was exclusively stored on my personal computer to inhibit second or third parties from accessing the data. Confidentiality is ensured through the anonymization of participants, who

12_{The codes were identified inductively.}

13_{This study was reviewed by Malmö University’s Ethics Council and received positive feedback on April 9,}

2020, stating that the study employs sufficient measures to protect the participants and shows great awareness of ethical issues.

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will be referred to as journalist A-D. Other possible identifiers, such as details about employers and age were removed as well.

Protecting the rights and needs of the research participants is of highest importance (Chambliss and Schutt, 2019:72). The participants were provided with an information letter14, which informed them about the purpose of the study, the opportunity to withdraw their participation at any time, and the option of contacting the Swedish Data Protection Authority with complaints. Further, it was emphasized that the participants had full control over which issues were discussed. Open communication is vital for interview research, as such I did not pose any follow-up questions that would touch upon highly sensitive or possibly traumatizing events and priorly asked the participants to tell me if I was overstepping boundaries. Informed consent was given in written form, by signing a consent form15 that was attached to the information letter.

5.6 Positioning of the Researcher

As the main instrument of data collection and analysis, I have a responsibility to reflect on my position in the context of the research and the potential impact on the study’s results and their interpretation (Chambliss and Schutt, 2019:233).

Having been in Hong Kong for an exchange semester in the fall of 2019, my experiences affect how I understand and view the protests in general and different actors involved in it. My position as a white, European woman, who has for the majority of her life lived in Germany and Sweden, Western countries with democracy as a granted circumstance, also impacts my view on the situation in Hong Kong and my understanding of news media (being surrounded by predominantly Western media and Western-centric theories about media). Inevitably, this has shaped the interpretation of the material.

However, the research and writing process was reviewed by my supervisor and fellow PACS students who could have identified any strong biases. By asking

14_{Appendix 4} 15_{Appendix 5}

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broad and open-ended questions the participants could answer in their own words without any constriction. My arguments are based on the analysis of empirical data that is made transparent through a selection of the original quotes from the interviews.

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6 Analysis

This chapter presents the findings of the directed content analysis, utilizing categories derived from Bläsi’s (2004) model of factors influencing conflict coverage. The findings are organized in accordance with these categories. Although presented separately for the purpose of clarity, the categories are not mutually exclusive but overlap and partially reinforce each other. After being presented, it is outlined how each factor can be seen as hindering or facilitating Peace Journalism.

6.1 Journalistic System

This section presents aspects of the journalistic system impacting conflict coverage. In the interviews, criteria of news selection, formats, time, organizational aspects, types of media platforms and social media were stressed.

6.1.1 Criteria of News Selection

Criteria of news selection, or news values, are certain characteristics that influence decisions about which issues make it into the news and which do not. The interviewees described that the coverage of the protests became more selective as they continued for several months. Hereby the selection criterion of escalation emerged. B described:

“At a certain point the protests got more repetitive, so we started updating less and less. We updated when there were serious incidents or escalations, for example the first time they would use a water cannon, the first time they had shot somebody, that kind of thing.”

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Journalist A voiced a similar point:

“I think peaceful protests became under-reported because why would you care about a peaceful protest on Friday when there is a violent protest on Saturday. It goes back down to what is newsworthy, violence proportionally is always more newsworthy than non-violence, because violence threatens the fabric of society”.

Selecting a story for its newness (e.g. a different angle) also became apparent as a criterion throughout the interviews. Journalist A explained:

“People want voices that illustrate different points of view. So, I think that automatically gives certain points of view more weight than others. (…) I think voices get lost if they are not saying anything new.”

D described that while the correspondence16 she was working with prioritized sensation less, newness was important: “they were thankfully interested, even if it’s a peaceful image, if there is something different to offer. A new angle or something”.

Three interviewees mentioned human interest as newsworthy17. Hereby they emphasized that the protests in itself were a human story, which made personalized stories newsworthy. This did, however, not result in a clear people-orientation, shown by the circumstance that there was little interest in minority voices. An article journalist A wrote about ethnic minorities within the protest movement and their perspectives of the situation was rejected several times before being published by a local outlet. She explained that this was because the content was “not newsworthy, it is something pretty much only HK people care about and even then not really” as it was “more of a side-issue, it is nice to hear from people but not necessarily news”.

The identified criteria for news selection display that priority in news was given to violent or action-laden events and incidents. This could clearly be seen as counterproductive for solution-orientated coverage that highlights “peaceful

16_{The media organization she was working with as a freelancer.}

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initiatives”, “invisible effects of violence” as well as proactive rather than reactive reporting18_{(Lynch and McGoldrick, 2005:6). The very foundation of Peace}

Journalism stems from the critique of traditional news values such as escalation, that facilitate War Journalism by prioritizing reporting violent events at the expense of peaceful ones. Always looking for new angles is counterproductive for inclusive and transparency-oriented Peace Journalism as the interviewees mentioned its effect of neglecting voices without anything new to say. Further, process-based reporting (instead of war-journalistic event-based reporting) almost inevitably entails repetition of some kind (ibid.:240). While the criterion of human interest could be interpreted as facilitating Peace Journalism, no interest in minority voices is further obstructing Peace Journalism, which is trying to lift minority voices instead of marginalizing them.

The identified news values can therefore overall be viewed as a critical obstacle to Peace Journalism. As these values are so ingrained in the news media structure, it is difficult for journalists not to conform to them, as stories that do not possess any of these identified news values are unlikely to be selected for publication (illustrated by the frequently rejected article on minority protesters).

6.1.2 Formats and Time

The material revealed that news content differs depending on the type of format. Further, these different formats provide different potential for Peace Journalism. While hard news19 are usually concise and provide the reader with “what”, features explain the “why”, by going more in-depth into the topic, often with a human-angle (Roberts, 2016:39). C described that when covering breaking news “there is not that much you can choose, you just go and cover the story”, while feature stories are more explorative, allowing to “find a human angle, personal stories, more of an in-depth documentary style”. The explorative nature of

18_{Proactive reporting describes reporting before direct violence occurs, reactive reporting describes the reporting}

only after the occurrence of direct violence (Lynch and McGoldrick, 2005:6).

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features, allowing for more complexity, hence seems to provide greater potential for Peace Journalism than hard news.20

The swift developments of the protests combined with the demand for news organizations to be up-to-date at any given time of the day to stay competitive resulted in high time pressure for the journalists. In this fast-paced environment, hard news were prioritized over feature stories. C voiced: “We were too busy covering the breaking news every day, we didn’t have much time to do feature stories, we were too exhausted”. D expressed that it would have been difficult to produce longer features by herself and was grateful for a collaboration with another journalist enabling her to do features in addition to hard news. She explained:

“It was difficult to keep calm. If you want to do a longer feature you need to take a step back and look at all the elements before you and piece them together. (…) but the protests kept happening one after another and kept changing the strategy. You know sometimes it would escalate, sometimes it would just go, and sometimes you would feel like that’s it, it’s over. Maybe even though I have time right now, a little bit of breathing space, it’s not relevant anymore. (…) But when things are really happening, it was like ok, I got to be there, and then you got to cover the straight news. Deliver, send all your footage by a certain time.”

Time pressure was mentioned by the journalists in combination with exhaustion. C stated that exhaustion was the main challenge while covering the protests and described the effects of the constant time pressure on her physical and mental well-being:

“I think PTSD symptoms are normal in a way, because it has been six months and the protests every week, so we haven’t had any personal life in these six months. We didn’t need to plan the weekend, we just go and work, cover the protest. (…) It was in the summertime, it is very hot, so the most challenging thing is exhaustion. And lack of sleep. If we want to catch the moment, we have to follow them, you never know when the key

20_{This observation grounded in my interview material is consistent with Lee’s (2010) findings that features, and}

opinion pieces are more often framed as Peace Journalism than hard news, due to being less dictated by traditional news values and more constrained by deadlines and limited space-formats than features.

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moments pop up. So, you have to be with them. (…) Usually, if I have intensive projects, like covering a typhoon, I can go days without sleeping and eating properly because I will have a long break afterwards. But with the protests, it is like a marathon. I feel like the first one or two months I used up all my energy and passion.”

Time pressure can thus be interpreted as clearly hindering Peace Journalism in this context: Peace Journalism is time-consuming as it requires thorough analysis and “exploring complexity”, “process-based reporting”, and reflection on the coverage, which was difficult due to constant time pressure– exemplified in the struggle to produce feature stories which entail more in-depth reporting (Lynch and McGoldrick, 2005:240). Time pressure can additionally be seen as counterproductive for Peace Journalism as it resulted in hard news taking precedence over features (which were identified to have less potential to be framed as Peace Journalism).

6.1.3 Organizational Aspects

Journalist B stressed the factor of space. Due to a word-limit of 1000 words set by her organization, she felt that important details and in-depth information often got lost as a particular story was updated throughout the day. However, the interviewed journalists generally perceived that there was a great amount of space available for protest-related news within Hong Kong and internationally, due to the public interest (see section 6.5).

Journalist B explained that she covered the protests on-site and sent the material to her office where an editor would put a story together. Hence, editors have great decision power over what ultimately is published and aired. Additionally, the orientation of the organization has significant impact on what is published. D described that “most broadcasters are interested in the action”, leading editors to select violent parts of the protests, even if most of it was peaceful. However, she was thankful that the orientation of her correspondence was less focused on action. Generally, the organizations and editors were not mentioned as an impeding influence by the journalists. Due to their power over what is published, editors and organizations overall can be identified as a major influence on the coverage, however, opportunities to practice Peace Journalism

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seem to be heavily dependent on the orientation of editors and the organization, but could not be identified as clearly hindering or facilitating Peace Journalism across this sample.

6.1.4 Type of Media Platform

Journalists D asserted that the coverage of the conflict differed based on the type of media platform21_{. As a freelancing video-journalists, she explained the}

difficulty to provide context in news content broadcasted by television:

“Providing context is really an ongoing struggle, especially with TV. There is a difference between online media where you have platforms like Facebook or Instagram and an audience deliberately selecting the content and watching the whole 3 minutes [of a video] or something. As opposed to a TV running in the background while you eat your dinner and all you see is probably eye-catching stuff that will turn your head if you suddenly hear tear gas sounds, and then you’re like ‘oh my goodness’. And then you see words running underneath like ‘Hong Kong, another day of chaos and violence, blablabla’ and that is all that you digest right? So, I think it is very difficult when it comes to TV journalism because there is not much context you can provide. And even if you did, I think it is harder to keep the audience watching, especially now, people do not watch much TV anyway. So, I think it is at a transition point where we have not quite figured out as TV journalists how we can provide better context visually, because broadcasters are interested in the action.”

The interview material demonstrates that there seem to be different challenges for practicing Peace Journalism that are based on the media platform. As providing context to “understand and uncover the conflict” (ibid.:240) is a core aspect of Peace Journalism, the emphasis on sensation and action makes television appear like a difficult platform for Peace Journalism in this context.

21_{News media include print media, such as newspapers or magazines, broadcast media, including television and}

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6.1.5 Social Media

Social media is not part of Bläsi’s model but was described as an influence on the coverage.22 All journalists stated that social media helped journalists to stay connected and to share information about where protest-related events happened. Furthermore, it emerged that social media provided a news-platform unaffected by certain challenges of traditional media. Journalist A described:

“You can get news out there really quickly without needing a platform to get the word out. (…) I could share a specific incident of police violence or something like that without needing to turn it into a story about police violence in general. (…) It helps to illustrate what’s going on without having to distill it, without having to make it into a traditional news-piece.”

However, B criticized that in social media any content can be uploaded and shared: “five seconds that we see in a clip could just be one side of the story, then what is the bigger picture?”. Another aspect stressed by A and B was the large amount of illegitimate news and increased possibility for selection:

“With the ability to publish information out there becoming more accessible, the general quality of media went down. Because now you could find a Youtuber who is a really terrible journalist but has big following because they say the kind of things that people want to hear. I think that unfortunately there was media out there contributing to polarization through bad journalism that made people think that they were right basically, that supported peoples’ pre-existing ideas.” (A)

Moreover, Journalist A claimed that the protest-related content on social media was still dominated by escalation:

“What gets shared on social media, what people hear about and share is the violent side. And people didn’t realize that there would be peaceful protests happening.”

22_{Bläsi’s (2004) model does not account for online journalism nor the influence on coverage stemming from the}

Potential for Peace Journalism? : Exploring the factors that influenced the coverage of Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition protests