The frame changers: journalists, the conflict, and peace process

ABSTRACT

This paper explores some of journalists’ struggles in gathering and framing news during the Northern Ireland conflict and peace process. Based on interviews with eight journalists who covered both periods, it details how they navigated what has been called a ‘propaganda war’ or what I call ‘frame wars’ that ran parallel with the physical conflict. These frame wars became complicating factors with which journalists grappled when seeking to produce meaningful news that fit both their professional standards and their own humanity. The processes that they revealed offers a window into three levels of social construction: First, on the level of the individual, journalists – like all people – come to understand political realities from a barrage of competing information, frames, and narratives. The journalists’ humanity arising from real experiences interacted with professional expectations to deliver news. Secondly, while traditional media’s norms, structures, and ideologies shaped newsgathering and story framing, their jobs were complicated by opposing narratives, choice of language, and subjects. Third, group dynamics and peer pressure influenced some journalists’ reportage. Placed within the context of the political communication literature, the interviews reveal thought processes among some leading journalists about the difficulties of reporting in a divided society.

KEYWORDS:

• Media
• peace process
• broadcasting ban
• journalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The ‘propaganda war’ is a term coined by Liz Curtis.

2. The Lord Stevens Enquiry Report (2003) established that a British army double agent provided the intelligence to Loyalists to identify Finucane to the gunmen and had been central in collusion between the British Army and loyalist paramilitary groups.