Academic Influence on Conflicts Reporting

 Academia also has the power to influence the media in a
number of ways (although its power is generally weaker than the other major
actors). When reporting on conflicts, journalists usually have little
background knowledge on the conflict, its causes and its participants. 

They
thus often turn to academics, or specialists in the field or in the region in
question for information and analysis, who are seen as authoritative voices on
those subjects and give credibility to media reports. Such experts may be
interviewed on television, write columns or op-ed pieces in the newspapers and
other periodicals. Specialists that prove to be popular may be called upon
again, becoming regular contributors to the media. Some may even cross over to
the media on a more permanent basis.

Academics may also use the
media to draw attention to their studies, in the process influencing the
conflicts the media choose to cover and how they cover them. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking
of World Order by Samuel Huntington (1996), for example, has had a broad
influence on the media and how it views conflicts in general. 

It is seen by
much of the media as a framework from which it can view and analyse Western
clashes with the Islamic world. Mortality studies in the DRC that have shown
previously unthinkable levels of conflict related death were brought to light
through the media and did, fora time, manage to attract moderate levels of
attention in the media to that largely neglected conflict.