Peace journalism and the value in process: Working with children in Northern Ireland

Peace journalism and the value in process: Working with children in Northern Ireland 2This paper advances understandings of peace journalism theory by identifying a value that lies in the journalistic process rather than in its products (Jarvis 2009;Robinson 2011Robinson , 2013)).It considers how journalism can be deployed as ethical practice to foster resolution and reconciliation in post-conflict contexts: not by simply changing the manner in which journalists frame conflict, but by opening up 'spaces for participation' within communities where dialogue can be created (Popplewell 2017).The paper adopts a case study approach, exploring and analysing Distinctive Voices, Collective Choices, a project undertaken in postconflict Northern Ireland in 2013-2014 in which youth workers who also possessed skills and experience as journalists helped children and young people to bridge the sectarian divide by developing what Mark Deuze calls the 'critical-reflective skillset, toolkit and outlook of a journalist' (2017: 321) and work collaboratively to explore each other's world view.The paper also conceptualises community as process rather than as a formed, static social grouping (Studdert and Walkerdine 2016).A brief account of the Distinctive Voices project and the context in Northern Ireland in which that was undertaken is followed by an explanation of the methodological approach.It then discusses the findings and concludes with an argument that research into peace journalism and peacebuilding should focus as much on participatory community-as-process outcomes by the encouragement and wider dissemination of journalists' skills and outlook as on the texts journalists create.