ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of how the news media has constructed the Northern Ireland situation during the contemporary period. This means looking at the portrayal of conflict and at how dominant elites have managed the flow of news in order to affect such portrayal. To put it simply, this part of the study is concerned with how the news media reported Northern Ireland as a war of terrorism and how the British government influenced the flow of news in order to wage an effective propaganda war against those seen as terrorists. It therefore also serves as an historical account of the conventions of news coverage and the political restraints which influenced that coverage.
