Social media and the Peace-Conflict Tension: Prospects and Challenges
December 2016
The environment of peace and conflict is daily being altered by the rapid, spontaneous coverage of African peace and conflict events on social media. As one one twitter user observes "Its like everyday there is something new ... Everyday. Bombing. Fighting. Killing. #BringBackOurGirls." The rapid deliberate and non-deliberate sharing of information on social media is having opposite effects on peace and conflict. It is increasing opportunities for building stable peace as well as increasing opportunities escalating conflicts. This workshop examines ways of leveraging social media to build peace.