Understanding Peace Through the Lens of News Media
Collection:CSM Museum & Study Collection
Date: 2025
Artist: Anca Georgeta Sarb
Medium: Digital PDF and Film
Object number: GD.2025.21.CC.1-2
Description1. Project Film
2. Project PDF
A film and PDF that document Anca Georgeta Sarb's project about how data visualisation can address gaps in continuity and context in news coverage of ongoing geopolitical conflict.
Description from the artist:
Peace agreements help bring conflicts to an end, yet how they unfold remains less
understood. News coverage of peace is often swift but can be fragmented: some
established formats such as world briefings tend to deliver quick updates but limited depth. Reporting also often lacks continuity, with negotiations and breakthroughs reported as isolated events rather than parts of a connected, ongoing process. At the same time, many negotiations fail without formal agreements, but in practice, existing peace datasets like PA-X (Bell and Badanjak, 2019) do not include such attempts to end or pause conflict.
Documenting attempted talks or negotiations, any signed agreements, involvement of
international actors in mediation efforts, or how far apart the opposing sides’ expectations
are on contested issues can start telling the complex story of how exits from conflicts are
constructed.
In this project, I examine how data visualization can act as a communication tool through
the lens of an ongoing conflict - the current Russia-Ukraine war - where peace steps unfold amid continued fighting. I draw on this conflict as a case study to explore how data
visualization can address gaps in continuity and context in news coverage of the peace
efforts so far. In war-related reporting, visual maps are commonly employed to show
military movements and territorial control. Similarly, data visualizations developed in this
project aim to serve as visual references within news stories, giving journalists tools to
provide more historical context and a broader perspective when reporting on peace
initiatives - and in doing so, shift focus from the individual peace events to understanding
the broader process
2. Project PDF
A film and PDF that document Anca Georgeta Sarb's project about how data visualisation can address gaps in continuity and context in news coverage of ongoing geopolitical conflict.
Description from the artist:
Peace agreements help bring conflicts to an end, yet how they unfold remains less
understood. News coverage of peace is often swift but can be fragmented: some
established formats such as world briefings tend to deliver quick updates but limited depth. Reporting also often lacks continuity, with negotiations and breakthroughs reported as isolated events rather than parts of a connected, ongoing process. At the same time, many negotiations fail without formal agreements, but in practice, existing peace datasets like PA-X (Bell and Badanjak, 2019) do not include such attempts to end or pause conflict.
Documenting attempted talks or negotiations, any signed agreements, involvement of
international actors in mediation efforts, or how far apart the opposing sides’ expectations
are on contested issues can start telling the complex story of how exits from conflicts are
constructed.
In this project, I examine how data visualization can act as a communication tool through
the lens of an ongoing conflict - the current Russia-Ukraine war - where peace steps unfold amid continued fighting. I draw on this conflict as a case study to explore how data
visualization can address gaps in continuity and context in news coverage of the peace
efforts so far. In war-related reporting, visual maps are commonly employed to show
military movements and territorial control. Similarly, data visualizations developed in this
project aim to serve as visual references within news stories, giving journalists tools to
provide more historical context and a broader perspective when reporting on peace
initiatives - and in doing so, shift focus from the individual peace events to understanding
the broader process