“Iraqi violence in Nepali Media: A case of domination of violence on news content“
A Case Study
< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> Prepared By,
Indra < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />< ?xml:namespace prefix = st2 ns = "urn:schemas:contacts" />Dhoj Kshetri.
MA MCJ (Third semester)
Exam Roll No-613065
 Submitted to,
Purwanchal University,
Biratnagar.
 MA MCJ Third semester, Case Study
 Prepared in partial fulfillment of the requirements of MAMCJ (604) Project III.
 College of Journalism and Mass Communication,
Kathmandu

Acknowledgement
        Firstly, I’d like to appreciate Purwanchal University for including project work in the syllabus of Master of Arts in mass communication and journalism (MAMCJ) Third semester program. As the Media sector is booming in the wake of twenty first century in the country, it has become crucial to begin discussions about their impact on the people’s life. Its high time Nepali Media sector looked itself at the mirror and judged its performance. Such Case Studies provide an opportunity for the students to analyze the media situation in the country critically. I pursued this Case Study with the hope that it will help to look at the darker side of Nepali media performance.
            I am heartily thankful to Mr. Tank Upreti, the project Director, for his valuable guidance during this study. Special debt is owed to Dr. Manju Mishra, the principal of the college, for providing me worthy suggestions during this study. All the teachers of College of Journalism and Mass Communication are worthy of thanks for their inspiration to pursue this study that has been over looked by the mainstream journalism.
            I am thankful to all the writers who have previously pursued some sort of studies on this sector and provided me with reference materials.
                        Finally, I’d like to thank my brother Keshab Kshetri who helped me typing and designing this report and thanks are due to all the friends and colleagues for their mockeries, comments & suggestions.
Indra Dhoj Kshetri

CONTENTS
1.     Case Title                                                                                           1
2.     Introduction                                                                                      
2.1.     Background of the Study                                                          2
2.2.     Rationale of the Study                                                               3
3.     Problem identification
3.1             Background of the problem                                                       4
3.3             Statement of the problem                                                          4
3.3      Problem identification                                                               4
4.     Causes and consequences of the problem    
4.1     Causes of the problem                                                              5
4.2     Consequences of the problem                                                   8
5.  Efforts made towards solving the problem                                           10
6.  Recommendations                                                                              11
7. References                                                                                          12
    
  
1.           Case Title
The title of this case study is “Iraqi violence in Nepali media:  A case of domination of violence on news content.” It is generally acceptable that violence makes news. However, the case of the coverage of Iraqi violence by Nepali media has been outstanding. Almost every day, newspapers run the news on multiple columns. It has become more dominant on electronic media. Almost every news bulletin, be it headlines or comprehensive bulletins, has the news about the violence on Iraq. In the given scenario, it was crucial to know the causes and effects of such trend. Hence, I have chosen the optimized coverage of Iraqi violence by Nepali media.
Iraq, which has been remotely located and is of no interest to the general people, has been inevitable part of every news production and publication in Nepal. With the outstanding coverage of Iraqi violence by Nepali media, patterns of international news coverage and media’s social responsibility role have been questioned. Do the broad sheet dailies lay the news just to fill up the space and the news bulletins include just filling the news hole? Couldn’t the Nepalese media make any difference to the news of Iraqi violence? Is it inevitable to include the news sent by the wire services or the international news providers as it is? These questions are raised with traditional presumptions towards electronic media that they mainly resorted to violence for news. They are often charged that they give more emphasis to the subjects related to violence. These charges had to be immediately repealed and in return, it was crucial to know the tendency of international news flow and coverage.

2.           Introduction
2.1.    Background of the Study
After the United States of America attacked Iraq on the dawn of 2003 New Year, nearly 60 thousand Iraqis and two thousand coalition forces have been killed. Deposed Iraqi President and most of his accomplices have been arrested by the US led Coalition forces. And after five months of war, the US declared that the war has been over on May. But still, there hasn’t been single day without the casualties on suicide/ bomb blasts or shooting. In the recent days, the conflict in Iraq has turned to be the communal fight between the Shiites and Sunni communities of Muslim. Iraqi violence has dominated other world issues since then and hence, has become major news content at the international news channels and publications. Those events are very regularly covered by the Nepalese media and even are followed up by them. They are widely covered in almost every news bulletins or each day by the broad sheet dailies.
A tentative study regarding coverage of violence in the international news (Kshetri: 2006) showed that, particularly, Iraqi violence dominated major content of the international news in Nepali media. The trend is still prevalent even after four years of the war, regardless that the war has been turned more to a communal violence between the Shiite and the Sunni communities.

2.2.    Rationale of the Study
The study is an attempt to see general tendency on international news coverage by Nepali media. Particularly, it is an effort to spot the domination of violence in the coverage of international news. The findings will be helpful to generalize to other similar cases of international news coverage of violence. Particularly, the study seeks to find out:

1.      How Nepali Media are growing violent culture.

2.      How they use the ready made news given by the international news agencies.

3.      Why Iraqi violence has so much dominated the international news content in Nepali media.

4.      Recommend the measures to minimize coverage of violence, particularly, remotely located.

5.      Recommend the measures to minimize the negative effect of the violence.

3.           Problem identification
3.1        Background of the problem
Every country is engulfed with its own problems. Almost all the countries have some sorts of internal conflicts. After the US attacked Iraq at the dawn of first January, 2003, it became the hot cake for the media all over the world. The international news giants e.g. BBC, CNN, Fox and many others almost brought the event live. The same trend was carried by the international news agencies as well. They eventually began to flow the news, updating the Iraq situation in every hours. Those contents were imitated by the Nepali media. Without any thorough consideration of audience’s expectations and ignoring the negative effects of violent news content, Nepali media blindly followed the trend and news on Iraqi violence became regular phenomenon, every bulletin and every issue.
3.2        Statement of the problem

Why has the Iraqi violence dominated the news content in Nepali media? Is it just because that international super powers e.g. the US and the UK are involved in the war? Does it mean that we have got to follow what the international media opt for? What efforts are made towards minimizing the negative effects of violence on audiences? Can the media stay dumb, ignoring the negative impact on audiences? Following the outstanding coverage of Iraqi violence by Nepali media, such crucial questions have been raised. This has to be immediately addressed to promote the accountability of the media towards its audience and social responsibility.  

3.3        Problem identification
Nepali media has been outstandingly covering the violence. Especially, violence in Iraq has become regular content of Nepalese media. Various communication experts blame Nepali media for promoting violent culture.

 4.           Causes and consequences of the problem
4.1   Causes of the problem
War and violence make news in media throughout the world. There has been assumption that war and violence is itself news. There are certain elements in war or violence e.g. conflict, human interest, drama etc. that are essential to make news. However, uninterrupted coverage of Iraqi violence by Nepali media can’t be simply defined with those causes. We need to apply other parameters to find the causes of such outstanding coverage.
4.1.1 Proximity
A major parameter to judge the news value is proximity. This is applicable to this case as well. However, we can’t find much proximity between Nepal and Iraq. They are remotely located, despite the fact that they lie in the same continent i.e. Asia. However, 34 deaths in Iraqi violence had more coverage than 100 deaths in a boat capsize in Bangladesh (Kshetri: 2006). They don’t have either type of cultural proximity. They are neither approximate from religious point of view. Only four percent people in Nepal follow Islam. News about Islamic festivals and violence during those festivals could be of some interest to the Nepalese.
Another parameter to measure proximity is diplomatic and financial ties. Nepal and Iraq have so far not established diplomatic ties. They don’t have any strong financial relations as well. However, Iraq as a major oil producer in the world can’t be ignored with towering price hike in the petroleum products. After US invasion in Iraq, the number of Nepalese youths going Iraq for employment has dramatically increased. An unidentified country (for foreign employment), has overnight been the centre of attraction to many youths willing to seek employment in gulf countries.  Though, the government hasn’t legally opened Iraq for foreign employment, nearly twenty thousand youths are supposed to have illegally entered Iraq (Kshetri: 2006). And those youths have added new dimension in financial ties between these countries. The family members and relatives of those youths are interested towards what is happening in Iraq.  As a result, the number of Nepalese with qualitative interest towards Iraq has also increased. (Qualitative interest, for the purpose of this case Study, means the number of people interested towards particular incident because it affects their life.)
Nepalese interest towards Iraq reached climax when 12 Nepalese were abducted by a terrorist group Ansar-al-Sunnah in July 18, 2004 and later brutally murdered on July 31^st. During those two weeks, Nepalese media played a crucial role, covering news at every hours and days. Some of them also sent their correspondents to the gulf countries and tried to collect as factual information as possible. (For example, Kantipur Daily sent Bijaya Babu Khatri to Kuwait to report on the incident) Since then, Nepalese interest towards Iraqi violence has been increased to some extent.  
4.1.2 Parallel type of violent conflict in the country
Another cause of outstanding coverage of Iraqi violence in Nepali media is parallel type violent conflict in the country. As the violence in the country made news everyday, why not the Iraqi violence? The editors were much influenced by this psyche. Owing to the growing violent activities in the country in the last five years, people’s mindset was also that any news bulletin or any issue of newspaper without violence news coverage was neither worthy.
Kunczik(1994:185) notes that on the consumption of violent news, it must be noted that crime reports in the daily newspapers are the most frequently read parts. Hence, to meet audience’s demand, some editors are even forced to opt for the violence news.
4.1.3 International news flow
Another more important cause behind outstanding coverage of Iraqi violence by Nepali media is international news flow. It is not financially and practically possible for Nepalese media to collect news from around the world through their own network of correspondents. Hence, they almost entirely rely on the international news agencies for international news. Nepali media mostly buy International news from giant news providers e.g. AFP (France), AP (USA) and Reuters (UK). Nepal’s news agency, the National News Agency, which is also the largest news distributor to the Nepalese media, also purchases the news from those giants and sometimes from foreign national news agencies and distributes to the national media in two languages i.e. Nepali and English. The Agency has a type of monopoly over the distribution of international news. (National News Agency Act 2019, clause 32(2) states that international or national news agencies can distribute their news only via the news agencies established as per the existing laws or His Majesty’s government.) The media also can’t buy the international news at their own interest. Hence, the international news pattern is same in the media throughout the country. The newspapers outside the capital just give headlines and run the news as they obtain from the agency. As the result, there are incidents that exactly same news is run by multiple newspapers.
The international news giants have set their own news values.  However, there seems unanimous assumption that violence makes news everywhere. Those incidents have both the elements of conflict and human interest, which are topmost news values of western media. Besides, violence in Iraq has added elements. The conflict there is of special kind. Almost the whole world is divided regarding US invasion in Iraq. And editors have experience that the US news Agency, AP gives unwanted coverage to the Iraqi violence in which the US is concerned. Pokhrel (2062 BS) has the experience that the AP immediately sends the news with outstanding coverage in the incidents if the Americans are a little affected.
4.1.4 Negativity
Another cause for the case is negativity in the incident.  Galtung and Ruge (1965) state that as much the event is negative on its consequence, so much it is likely to make news.  There have been certain positive changes in the life of Iraqi people after the US invasion. There have been some sorts of positive changes on the state of Citizens’ rights and individual freedom.  The injustices in the name of religion are to some extent, not done and protected by the state. However, nothing creative is the news about Iraq, but violence. Here western assumption that negative only makes news has been working in Nepali media as well.
4.2 Consequences of the problem

          Kunczik (1994) sates that the coverage of violence, especially politically motivated violence which has usually the presence of media or expected reporting may also incite violence. Many scholars agree that the consumption of violence news also makes people violent. Especially, the films that have horror and violence on its context have come to an attack by the social scientists that they may also affect the children; make them violent in their behaviors. Sometimes there are reports of killing of the friend by a school boy, mainly in western countries. Probably, that mentality is also attributed to the violent media presentation. And, surely, as the best consumed, news can’t be an exception. Last year there were reports in India that a girl child was killed while imitating a media action. When the Indian media dramatically showed the execution of a criminal Dhananjaya Chatarjee by hanging, the girl also imitated that cost her life. Even in Nepal, seeing the play of weapons at their courtyard during ten years of violent conflict, children imitated them to their game.

The news of internal violence can’t be ignored. But what media can do is not to sensationalize them. And media have to utmost try to minimize the negative effect of the violence. Media can’t forget their social responsibility role. Given scenario, it is not only illogical to highlight the news of violence in Iraq, but also it is to divert from the responsibility of the journalist. To sum up, the following have become the effects of the violence news coverage by Nepali media.
Forceful creation of interest: The coverage of violence in Iraq is not so justifiable from the standards of proximity and others. However, the Nepalese media are covering it as if routine, very genuine news and update. And they are forcefully feeding their audience with those news. The psychology on the audience has developed to such a level that a dulletin or an issue without news in Iraq is monotonous.
 Hurting the sensitivity: To the next hand, Nepalese media are also hurting the sensitivity of their audiences.  Sanders (2003) writes ‘The assumption behind war and conflict in the remote places is that as farther the people suffer, so more the visuals of their pains and miseries are loved to show.” The same assumption applies for Nepali media as well. Nepali media even don’t feel a least difficulty to show too gory visuals and news about the violence in Iraq.
This trend deeply affects the sensitivity of the people. As more they are confronted towards violence, so more they turn inhuman, a mechanized human being without sensitivity towards others. They can enjoy dinner even when the gory pictures of the Iraqi violence are shown in the television screen. Least, owing to the daily coverage of internal violence, the sensitivity of a Nepali towards the miseries of another Nepali has itself gone down. At this time, media may do better by avoiding such things that hurt others’ sensitivity.  

      4.3   Efforts made towards solving the problem
There have not been any efforts towards minimizing the negative effects of violence news coverage. Least, there haven’t been any study on those effects as well. Nepali media is just growing into professionalism from mission journalism carried till 1990. The journalists are taught what makes news. Surely, as mentioned above, violence makes news. Any violence in the country, especially, in the last five years, made outstanding news. Everyday newspaper ran the stories about the killing and violence either by the rebels or security forces.  Hence, they are so mechanized that any violence, be it domestic or international doubtlessly, makes news. That’s why, none journalists have bothered to think about the effect of the story that s/he carries.
The media houses are also so far not attacked by any interest group for inciting violence or for their negative effects. Neither the media organizations are. The media organizations were busy fighting for the press freedom in the last few years. All the resources were diverted towards promoting press freedom. Hence they have no time and resources to study the negative (or positive) impact of the media on general people. Least, the media in developing countries like Nepal are worst ignored as an agenda to think about. The media are just left in the hands of journalists, nobody else bothering about it.
However, with the increase in the number of media students, especially after the launch of Masters’ level study in Mass Communication in Journalism and by Purwanchal and Trivuwan University simultaneously in 2002, some heed is paid towards those effects as well. Some discussions are focused towards it.   

5. Recommendations
It is rational here to conclude this study with the following recommendations to minimize the coverage of violent news and its negative impact on the audiences:
1.     The media should minimize the coverage of violence.
2.     They should avoid such news, if it is of remote and does not so much of interest to the audiences of Nepalese media.
3.     The Universities should promote their students who want to do researches in the field of impact of media
4.     Media organizations should begin orientations on the negative effects of such coverage
5.     The media organizations should focus their fund towards the researches on the impact of media content
6.     With differing news values with the western media, Nepalese media should promote the developmental news
7.      News about the development and growth, from the third world is prioritized.
8.     The internet has made easy for the cross check as well. There are certain assumptions that the western media are also biased towards developing countries. Hence, Nepalese media should use their check list with the other media, especially on the net.
9.     At last, it is high time for the Nepali media to identify its social responsibility role as the watchdog of civilian interest and acted responsibly.

References
Galtung, Johan and Ruge, M. H. (1965) The Structure of Foreign News, as illustrated in: Kunczik, Michael (1994:183), “Violence and the Mass Media” Bonn, Friedriech Ebert Stiftung(FES).
Kshetri, Indra Dhoj (2005) Patrakarita, Kathmandu, Federation of Nepalese Journalists. Iraqi violence in Nepalese Media
Kunczik, Michael (1994), Violence and the Mass Media, Bonn, Friedriech Ebert Stiftung (FES).
McQuail, Dennis (2001) McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory, 4^th edn. London, Sage Publications.
Mencher, Melvin (2004), Basic News Writing, 3^rd edn. Reprint,  New Delhi, Universal Book Stall.
Pokharel, Jagadish (2062 BS), Interview with the author, Jestha 10. Pokharel is the Associate Editor at The Rising Nepal
Sanders, Caren (2003) Ethics and Journalism, London, Sage Publications.