ABSTRACT
This chapter intends to examine how journalists perceived their role in reporting peace process, and to establish what they saw as main influential factors and pressures when reporting peace. Although many of the questions which are asked by journalists were similar or at least comparable to those asked of politicians, they elicited different responses which tended to cover a broader range of areas and issues. For this reason and for purposes of convenience, responses of journalists have been sectioned into five categories. Those categories are: sources and environment; language and construction; political pressure; reporting peace and negotiations; and routines, constraints and procedures. The changing political landscape of Northern Ireland from a process of conflict to one of conflict resolution signified a number of changes in nature of news representations, being the absorption of paramilitary representatives into news discourse. Journalistic perspectives on reporting the peace process reveal a number of points about the relationship between politics and news which warrant summarising.
