According to this guide, radio talkshows are becoming the most influential form of media and a great many of them, those that use conflicts and disagreements as a way of attracting listeners, risk doing more harm than good. They can intensify the conflict under discussion, and rather than inform listeners, leave them angry or fearful, or with the sense that the conflict will go on forever. They can make destructive conflict seem the inevitable response to all disagreements and destabilise communities.

This guidebook is designed to help talkshow presenters and producers learn some new skills to deal with conflict effectively on air. According to the authors of this guide talk shows require diversity, spontaneity and flexibility, so there are no absolute rules about how to discuss conflict in a more constructive manner. The guide offers techniques and skills to enable presenters to talk about conflict in a way which is interesting and informative, which offers positive alternatives, and which holds an audience.

The guide contains examples which are drawn from African countries and it is written with this continent in mind; however, the issues, discussions and skills are also relevant to a much wider spectrum of countries. The guide was developed at a workshop organised by the Radio for Peacebuilding, Africa project in Bujumbura, Burundi in April 2005 which was attended by twenty-one sub-Saharan African talk show presenters and producers from commercial, state, public and private radio stations.

This second edition of the guide was developed out of a series of focus group meetings with broadcasters and experts in Sierra Leone, Burundi and Belgium. Their recommendations led the publishers to make several changes to the structure of the guides - notably to add a section on Conflict.

Click here to download a PDF file of this guide in English.

Click here to download a PDF file of this guide in French.