ABSTRACT
One of the most interesting reform movements—peace journalism (PJ)—has emerged within the ranks of media professionals themselves. This chapter highlights a sharp contrast in terms of the relative frequency of each of the characteristics in our war and peace journalism scales. It focuses on the relationship between war journalism (WJ) and PJ scores and other variables in the news production and presentation process—respectively, the country and newspaper of publication, the organizational provenance of articles, the geographical focus of each news story, the genre of article, and the accessing of sources. Canadian press coverage of the Afghanistan conflict was more “belligerent” than its coverage of Lebanon, where no Canadian troops were deployed. Lower WJ scores are found in Europe, the rest of the world—areas where there was significant support, in the case of the Lebanon conflict, for an early ceasefire, and where relevant newsworthy stories were not about battles, but about diplomatic efforts or peace protests.
