How media organisations and non-governmental organisations support or practice journalism in conflict settings

Journalism in conflict settings increasingly involves actors beyond traditional media organisations. While non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and media organisations (MOs) have distinct identities, both operate in overlapping spaces of information production, dialogue facilitation and peacebuilding support. Yet, their interaction remains underexplored. Based on 13 in-depth interviews with representatives of MOs and NGOs active in conflict contexts in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Azerbaijan, this study examines how both organisation types describe their functions and practices in conflict resolution. Analysis reveals shared core functions, such as providing access to information, strengthening social cohesion and facilitating dialogue. Differences also emerge: NGOs explicitly frame their work as peace promotion, while MOs frequently reject that label yet implicitly engage in aligned practices. We argue that this convergence constitutes an emergent hybrid field, which we term conflict-solution-oriented journalism (CSOJ), capturing the boundary-blurring between journalistic and civil society practices in conflict settings.