Can positive messaging on social media promote peacebuilding in Myanmar?

• Main Author: Silverman, Clement
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS) 2018
• Subjects: Communication; development; social media; international development; Myanmar; Burma; Peacebuilding; conflict resolution; Social Sciences; Samhällsvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-23127

Can positive messaging on social media promote peacebuilding in Myanmar? It is argued that social cognitive communication campaigns reversing negative symbolic interactionism on social networks could be the answer. This paper finds that there has been only one significant campaign, MIDO’s Pan Zagar, to use positive messaging on social media. Whilst the numbers of people that engaged with it suggest that this was popular, there is not enough evidence to determine if this had any behavioural change. However, an opinion survey and interviews show that there is potential to leverage counter narratives towards building peace – especially by harnessing the popularity of the major platform Facebook to both monitor and publish content influencing people towards peaceful behaviour.