Clicking Facts— How to Get Reliable Data on War and Peace for Media, Civic Education, and Peace and Conflict Research

Whether it be the war in the Middle East, violent conflicts in failed states or increasing military expenditures - the topic of war and peace is omnipresent. But to understand interaction and to conduct a well-founded political discussion, one thing is absolutely vital: facts.

Hard data are extremely valuable for the media, civic education and for peace and conflict research.

• High-end journalism needs the data for solid research - the precondition for independent journalistic work that does not just parrot the mainstream but also constitutes the basis for the generation of illustrative information graphics.
• Civic education intends to enable citizens and teachers to understand and to critically examine societal and political contexts as well as to engage actively in democratic processes. The basis for this is reliable information.
  
• Peace and conflict research needs hard data to conduct basic research, analyze current conflicts and to draw conclusions for policy advice.

Against this backdrop, this workshop seeks to discuss the following questions: Which opportunities do the new media offer to make data and facts available - for free and to everyone? How can data be prepared so that they not only provide the users with information but also enable them to compare and critically analyze? Where are the limits when offering and using data? Who guarantees the quality of data and their preparation?

As an example, the workshop will present the modular information portal http://sicherheitspolitik.bpb.de, which BICC has developed in association with the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) for use in the latter’s online services in the topic area of war and peace.