media and conflict in myanmar: opportunities for media to advance peace siders the diversity in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior among groups within the population, realizing that these differences themselves are often associated with conflict behaviors. The intended outcomes or goals of media initiatives are similarly defined as specific ­knowledge, attitudes, and behavior outcomes that respondents argued will best support conflict management and peacebuilding. These outcomes are defined as a desired state with respect to the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of target communities in relation to specific conflicts. For example, Myanmar’s Bamar ethnic majority is often not aware of or misunderstands the aspirations of the country’s non-Bamar ethnic groups, which can drive attitudes and behaviors that sustain conflict or make collaboration for peacebuilding difficult. Thus, an intended outcome of media interventions is for Bamar populations to gain widespread awareness of non-Bamar ethnic history, language, and culture and perceive these communities’ aspirations as legitimate. Of course, media initiatives are far from the only activities that support positive knowledge, attitude, and behavior change in societies. Much work is being done in education, for example, to promote understanding of other ethnic groups, tolerance, and respect for diversity. Various local and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have been working for decades in areas such as human rights documentation, advocacy, and capacity-building initiatives to increase awareness and foster attitudinal change on peace-related issues. The proposed initiatives in this report are intended to complement these activities, taking advantage of new media freedoms within the country. In a similar vein, media initiatives are intended to support rather than replace structural changes necessary for a peaceful transition. Media initiatives can promote transparency and accountability of government, for example, but must be accompanied by comprehensive structural reforms, more effective service provisioning, and relationship-building between citizens and the state that combined will create the foundation for sustainable peace. This study considers three primary conflicts—or sets of issues that generate violent conflict—in Myanmar and details the knowledge, attitudinal, and behavioral elements that compose them. These three conflicts are characterized for the purpose of this report as state-society, ethno-political, and intercommunal. The proposed media initiatives detailed later are designed to transform peoples’ knowledge, attitudes, and behavior in order to build peace. Conflict Landscape in Myanmar State-Society Conflict Conflict between the regime and the people came to symbolize Myanmar’s struggle, particularly for international audiences. Arising out of decades of authoritarian rule, Myanmar is marked by low levels of trust and moments of open and violent conflict between the government and its people. Many civilians have sought more equal distribution of power, which those in power have sometimes feared would bring disunity or disintegration of the Union. This counterpoint has led to several cycles of civilian protest and violent backlash since independence. Perhaps the most notorious was the pro-democracy uprising of 1988 and the military regime’s violent crackdown, which brought the state to the brink of collapse and forced much of Myanmar’s civil society and democratic opposition underground. In 2007, this conflict was again made visible when Buddhist monks and nuns led a movement known as the Saffron Revolution, demanding economic and political changes from the government. In these various moments of citizen mobilization, the demands have been for democracy, fairer distribution of resources and services, economic opportunity, accountability under the law, and freedom to exUSIP.ORG  7 Myanmar’s Bamar ethnic majority is often not aware of or misunderstands the aspirations of the country’s non-Bamar ethnic groups, which can drive attitudes and behaviors that sustain conflict.