Media and the Path to Peace

This is the first book to examine in detail the roles that the news media can play in an ongoing peace process. Gadi Wolfsfeld explains how the press’s role in such processes varies over time and political circumstance. He examines three major cases: the Oslo peace process between Israel and the Palestinians; the peace process between Israel and Jordan; and the process surrounding the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. Wolfsfeld’s central argument is that there is a fundamental contradiction between news values and the nature of a peace process. This often leads the media to play a destructive role in attempts to make peace, but variations in the political and media environment affect significantly exactly how the media behave. Wolfsfeld shows how the media played a mainly destructive role in the Oslo peace process, but were more constructive during the Israel-Jordan process and in Northern Ireland.

• This is the first book to look at the role of the media in peace processes • Deals with important case studies from Middle East and Northern Ireland • Includes interviews with political figures from both sides of the conflicts

Introduction; 1. Building theory; 2. The initial stages of Oslo; 3. The Israeli media and the debate over Oslo; 4. The Palestinians and the Israeli media; 5. The media and the Israel-Jordan peace process; 6. The media and the struggle for peace in Northern Ireland; 7. The collapse of Oslo and the return to violence; Conclusion; Methodological appendix.

\' … thoughtful and thought-provoking …\' Philip Seib, Marquette University