The British press and Northern Ireland : a case study in the reporting of violent political conflict.

The study presented here focuses on the treatment accorded to
Northern Ireland by the British press since 1969. It argues that the
press has failed to provide the public with an impartial or meaningful
account of the conflict in the North, and explores some of the factors
that have contributed to this failure.
Chapter One outlines the primary functions that have been
ascribed to journalists and the press in democratic society, and
provides a standard against which press performance may be judged.
Chapter Two evaluates a range of commentaries on the British media's
reporting of Northern Ireland from Partition to the present day.
The study moves on to examine the debate over the media's
representation of "terrorism" and assesses the consequences of this
debate for the British media's reporting of Northern Ireland.
Chapter Four provides an account of the research methods employed in
the study and reflects on some of the practical problems encountered
during the course of the fieldwork. Chapter Five presents the
findings of a content analysis of the coverage accorded to civilian
assassinations by seven British and two Northern Irish newspapers
during a five week period in 1972. Chapter Six outlines the
development of the information services operated by the army and the
police, and describes how these forces have used their strategic
position as a news source to gain the edge in the propaganda war.
Picking up on some of the themes and issues raised in previous chapters,
Chapter Seven focuses on those involved in the production of news and
presents the findings of a series of interviews undertaken with
journalists in Belfast and London. The final chapter summarises the
principal findings of the study and reflects on the prospects of a
reversal in the present approach to the reporting of Northern Ireland
by the British press.