Conclusions: A Strategy for Peace Journalism

Abstract

This book has sought to explain the historical, contextual and professional factors leading journalists to focus on major political events and use mainstream, established perspectives in their coverage of the Israeli—Palestinian conflict. It has also considered how the complex interaction between events and perspectives has militated against the transformation of this conflict in the long term. Explaining “the governing logics of news production” in context, this book has highlighted those aspects that need to be tackled in order for an alternative journalism to flourish (Hackett 2006: 2). Many journalists justified these logics to ease the tensions they felt between constraints and ideals, and in this way they maintained a focus on the “political”, as opposed to the wider, social level, from where very political opportunities for change could emerge and become visible. In fact, it was the perceived and established political importance of an event that made a good news story. This was despite the fact that journalists saw themselves as promoters of truthful accounts and rejected the idea of being promoters of politics. In this vision, journalism is conceived as the channel between society and political institutions, a detached field that interacts autonomously with politics and its most visible developments to inform citizens’ choices in democratic societies.