Introduction : Media’s Role in the Creation of Knowledge and Images of Wars: More Relevant and More Complicated Than Ever

According to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), in 2016 there were 49 state-based armed conflicts across the world – 47 of these were intrastate conflicts, and of these, 38% (18) were internationalized (external states contributed troops to one or both sides in the conflict). In the category of non-state conflicts, for 2016 UCDP counted 60 conflicts (organized violence) 1 – the majority of these (33) were in Africa, followed by 17 in the Middle East and eight in South America (all of those in South America were in Mexico) (Allansson, Melander, & Themner, 2017, pp. 576, 578). 2 However, we hear almost nothing about the vast majority of these armed conflicts because the media report on very few of them.