The news media can play a central role in the promotion of peace. They can emphasize the benefits that peace can bring, they can raise the legitimacy of groups or leaders working for peace, and they can help transform images of the enemy. The media, however, can also serve as destructive agents in the process. They can emphasize the risks and dangers associated with compromise, raise the legitimacy of those opposed to concessions, and reinforce negative stereotypes of the enemy. This work will attempt to explain how, why, and when the media take on each of these roles.

This work can be seen as an expansion of previous efforts of mine to explain the role of the news media in political conflicts (Wolfsfeld, 1997a). The theoretical approach developed in that work was referred to as the political contest model. One of the central themes of that theory was that the best way to understand the role of the media in politics is to view the competition over the news media as part of a larger and more significant contest among political antagonists for political control. Thus, when political leaders are able to exert control over the political environment – say in the level of support they mobilize – they find it much easier to promote their policies to the news media. A lack of political control, on the other hand, leads to a more independent press that is reluctant to accept official dictates.