Media and Violent Extremism

February 26 - 27, 2019

Bahria University, Islamabad , Pakistan

While Pakistan has been witnessed of numerous significant religious and political conflicts, it is also in the grip of extremism and violence. From sectarian attacks to anti-minority violence to anti-state insurgencies, Pakistan has faced a number of internal conflicts with varying degrees of intensity and concern. The state’s response has largely resorted to kinetic warfare, with successful military operations conducted to eliminate terrorist strongholds and destroy their networks.

Though the state has responded to this threat with successful military operations, the problem needs a more holistic approach, where all stakeholders need to put in concerted and consistent efforts to deal with the threats of extremism and violence. There has been a realization that communications has an increasingly important role to play in this conflict.

There has been a shift in recognizing the role of media and communications in the extremist threat. Militant organisations have been quite potent in their ability to motivate and justify their actions using extremist rhetoric. The mainstream media is still adjusting to cope with developing professional standards on conflict reporting, given that much of the sector is prone to sensationalism and inaccuracy in the quest for ratings. Though social media effects remain significant in the use of online hate speech and hate material to incite violence against individuals and groups, it remains an unexplored territory for empirical research in the Pakistani context. In this environment, there is a serious need to examine the role of the media in chronicling and contextualizing extremism and its violent manifestations.

For this purpose, Pakistan Peace Collective (PPC), a project of the Ministry for Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage, organized the 1st International Conference on Media and Violent Extremism in Islamabad on February 27, 2019. The conference brought together leading international and national academics, practitioners and researchers in the field to deliberate/examine/on the relationship between the media, the state and the narratives on extremism and violence in Pakistan.

CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS

• Association of Media & Communication Academic Professionals (AMCAP)
• Pakistan Peace Collective (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Pakistan) 
• Bahria University Islamabad