Reduced view of a multidimensional reality : the Northern Ireland peace treaty in Berliner Zeitung - an example of peace journalism?

Abstract

As a result of the 'cold war culture', war became a permanent item on the political agenda and could be consumed as part of everyday entertainment. In news media the result was a type of conflict coverage, which contributes to conflict escalation by means of propaganda techniques.<br />Knowing about the media's impact on reality construction and opinion making, a type of journalism is demanded, which portrays reality entirely and truthfully, and which overcomes antagonism. Accordingly, the present study focuses on the media's potential contribution to peace building in war-torn societies. We test the hypotheses according to which (a) a de-escalation oriented reporting style is part of the journalist's repertoir (individual presupposition) and (b) peace on the political agenda allows this de-escalation oriented reporting style to emerge (environmental presupposition).<br />A representative article which looked promising in terms of constructive coverage of the Northern Ireland peace treaty at first glance, was analyzed. The results demonstrate that de-escalation oriented reporting exists, but it is still far from being peace journalism. Though reality is still described incompletely, the article compromises a fundamental characteristic of escalation oriented discourse: the indignation of the conflict parties against each other.