SENSITIVE JOURNALISM AS A CONFLICT SETTLEMENT TECHNOLOGY
Authors: Tkhorzhevska Tetiana 
Published: April 2024

The article is devoted to the possibilities of sensitive journalism in preventing or ending conflicts. Existing proposals based on international experience regarding the use of sensitive journalism as a way to prevent and end conflicts are considered: the need to investigate structural and cultural violence against certain groups; identify all groups that are participants in the conflict; outline the real interests of these groups; to become a dialogue platform for conflicting parties. Conflict is defined by specialists in sensitive journalism as a situation when two or more people, groups of people, have or think they have incompatible goals and undermine the possibility of achieving each other’s goals. When creating journalistic material taking into account the methods of sensitivity, it is first necessary to determine the stage of the conflict (superficial, latent, open), as it affects the further focus of the illumination. Experts advise giving voice by telling personal stories to all potentially conflicted groups. If the conflict has entered the latent stage, it is necessary to reveal the needs of the conflicting groups. Open conflict is an open, often violent, deeply expressed, deep-seated frustration with an unmet need or goal. As the conflict escalates, the collective identity of each side is formed as the opposite of the enemy’s personality. From the point of view of sensitive journalism, it is necessary to study in detail all the nuances of such mutual identification. Further, when journalists “allow their media to become a place for dialogue,” they thereby facilitate mutual understanding between the parties.
Further, the article outlines the possibilities of using the technology of sensitive journalism in the modern Ukrainian context. This has gained relevance in connection with Guided by the OSCE proposals, the Ukrainian media space tried to respond to requests of conflict sensitivity. In particular, central and regional online media and television content were monitored. Research results: central and regional online media in 2015 provided 5% of information about social groups related to the conflict. Most of the materials were devoted to fighters; less than 1% to volunteers and immigrants; materials dedicated to the residents of the occupied territories are completely absent. The results of the television content research show similar trends. The analysis of the target groups that were studied in the course of monitoring makes it possible to understand that these are groups that appeared already during the open armed conflict. Thus, unfortunately, we cannot talk about the awareness of the need to investigate and understand the situation of cultural and structural violence that preceded the conflict, to take into account the interests of all interested groups and to have a deep understanding of the context.
Separately, such a basic thing for conflict-sensitive journalism as a sensitive interview should be mentioned. Ukrainian journalists and specialists in the field of communication began to pay attention to him mainly during the large-scale invasion of 2022. Although the basic principles of a sensitive interview are somewhat clear, it is a pity that there is no clear line between the interview as a genre and as a method of gathering information. Clearly establishing this boundary, understanding the sensitive interview exclusively as a method of gathering information, in our opinion, would help to better understand the possibilities of this type of interview.