ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter I set out to explain how the peace process came about, the importance of media coverage within this development, and to raise a number of questions about the ability of news to communicate and facilitate peace negotiations. What I have tried to argue, is that within the emerging peace process paradigm, the conditions of political engagement in news were different from before, and that now, alternative discourses were absorbed into coverage, posing new problems for the flow of dominant discourse. With the transition from war to peace, a broader range of political discourses became included in coverage, each competing to try and gain the initiative and stake out the substantive issues which might determine the direction of peace. This absorption of a wider range of competing viewpoints some of which were previously demonised by the media, created new possibilities for challenging dominant discourse and obstructing elites in their efforts to communicate positions and perspectives.
