C-essay in Political Science by Sunniva Lagnestål Melhuus, Spring 2013, Political Science III at Karlstad University, Supervisor: Hans Lödén, “Perceptions of a Conflict – A qualitative analysis of Indian and Pakistani mass media” In this essay the aim is to study the current situation and recent development of an international conflict from a social constructivist perspective, with an emphasis on the conflicting parties’ mutual perceptions. The long conflict between India and Pakistan is here chosen as an example. According to a social constructivist perspective the dynamics on the international arena depend on shared ideas and expectations. Therefore the question that is sought to be answered here is how India and Pakistan perceive each other, currently and over a recent time period. In this essay the focus lies on the images articulated in the countries’ mass media. Circa 500 news articles were selected from Indian and Pakistani newspapers and analysed using a social psychology conflict model. Drawing from previous research I argue that the images displayed in mass media affect the development of the conflict. The result of this study is that although the combined development in each country remains constant, both countries display negative developments in some aspects and the current situation is not hopeful in either country. By analysing the mutual perceptions of the conflicting parties it seems that the conflict will not de-escalate in the near future and both countries continue to perceive the other hostilely.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:kau-28175 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Lagnestål Melhuus, Sunniva |
| Publisher | Karlstads universitet, Fakulteten för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap (from 2013) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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