Media and the Path to Peace Communication, Society and Politics Series Gadi Wolfsfeld

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 with time and political circumstances. 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. Gadi Wolfsfeld is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Communication at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of Media and Political Conflict: News from the Middle East (Cambridge University Press, 1997)