ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines how journalists perceived their role within the peace process and how they worked with the politics of that process, and investigates how television news coverage of peace was decided and managed. Based on interviews with news editors, it aims to identify the selective processes and practices used to influence reports, and try to establish whether the peace process paradigm created new problems for editors when producing reports about the developing peace. Like the interviews conducted with journalists, the chapter is concerned with how news selects and constructs representations of the peace process. The interview material gathered from editors covered a broad range of issues and concerns, which has also been categorised in this instance under five headings. Those headings are: the problem of broadcasting Northern Ireland and the search for balance; the representation of conflict; from violence to peace; routines, time and the political process; and tasks and responsibilities.
