conflict & communication online, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003
www.cco.regener-online.de
ISSN 1618-0747

Susanne Jaeger
Reconciliation and the mass media: The coverage of the French-German peace process after World War II

This paper contains some initial insights from a long-term study of German post-war press coverage about France and the French from 1946 until 1970. The method chosen was quantitative content analysis. The study is based on a news factors model of mass communication proposed by Johan Galtung. According to him, news factors determine the selection of events that become news. But routines of news selection may actually deepen conflicts instead of containing them or making them negotiable without violence by providing a better understanding of the conflict background. In the post-war period they could instead create obstacles to increased mutual understanding and reconciliation. But how does post-war news coverage actually look? Did the mass media display a willingness to make changes in their coverage? The case of the French-German reconciliation process, which can be regarded as successful, shows that peace processes can in fact be covered by the media in a constructive manner: For example, this is the case if the number of "positive" topics and the amount of coverage they receive is consistently higher than that of the "negative." The number of non-elite topics increased in the study period, revealing much about the rising German interest in and fascination for the French way of life and culture. The study shows that a "bad-news-orientation" is not inevitable, but can be actively overcome if peace and reconciliation are placed on the public agenda.