Gadi Wolfsfeld, 2004, Media and the Path to Peace. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
Hardback edition | Paperback edition
Abstract
This is the first book to examine in detail the roles that the news media can play in an ongoing peace process. The author explains how the press's role in such processes varies with time and political circumstance. The theoretical principles that are developed are applied to three different cases: The Oslo peace process between the Israelis 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. Nevertheless, variations in the political and media environment affect significantly how the media function. 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.
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