Covering Conflict: Beware Fake News But Fear Faux Frames & False Narratives

A panel discussion with:

• Sonia Rolley, journalist, foreign correspondent, RFI (Radio France International)
• Thomas Lansner, Paris School of International Affairs of Sciences Po faculty member,  Professor at Columbia University (SIPA).

Introduction by Mark Maloney, Vice Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs of Sciences Po (PSIA).

During any violent conflict, key actors vie to shape public perceptions to gain or diminish political, moral, and material support for spilling blood and spending treasure. Thus is evoked an enduring struggle between independent media and combatants, governments, and non-state actors that seek to control access to conflict zones and/or truthful information about a conflict’s causes, conducts, costs and consequences.

In this discussion, panelists will focus on media coverage of current conflicts, considering blatant propaganda sometimes deployed, but more important, questioning the narratives and frames that inform conflict coverage. They will address how media often promote partisan perspectives and/or purposefully excludes information that some would rather the public not contemplate.