conflict & communication online, Vol. 11, No. 2, 2012
www.cco.regener-online.de
ISSN 1618-0747

Wilhelm Kempf & Stephanie Thiel
On the interaction between media frames and individual frames of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The present paper reports on a media effects research experiment in which six groups of participants were asked to read and evaluate differently framed news articles about two scenarios: a Palestinian attack on Israel and an Israeli military operation against Palestinians. The experimental results show that media peace frames of violent events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are generally regarded by the German public as more comprehensible, less biased, more balanced and less partisan than media war frames of the same events. The specific ways in which recipients respond to the frames, however, depend on their prior knowledge of the conflict, on their positioning to the conflict and on their sensitivity to the ambivalence of war and peace for both Israel and the Palestinians. This supports the hypothesis that neither news selection nor framing have uniform effects on public opinion.

On the authors:
Wilhelm Kempf, Prof. em. for Psychological Methodology and Head of the Peace Research Group at the University of Konstanz, Germany. Since 2002 editor of conflict & communication online. Special areas of interest: nonviolent conflict solutions, the construction of social reality by the mass media.
Address: Lehderstr. 61, 13086 Berlin, Germany.
Website: http://www.pfkn.regener-online.de
eMail: cco@regener-online.de

Stephanie Thiel, Dipl.-Psych., MA in International Criminology, is a doctoral student and member of the Peace Research Group at the University of Konstanz. Her areas of interest include anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim sentiments, global political economy, mechanisms and consequences of inclusion and exclusion, anomie, white collar-crime and corruption.
eMail: Stephaniethiel13@yahoo.de