The politics of blame: Mass media messages and political violence during peace negotiations

Abstract

Using negative binomial regression, we tested the relationships between political violence and media messages of blame across five distinct publications in Northern Ireland, publications that varied by ideology/identity and structure over a period of 4.5 years during the peace process. While controlling for previous violence, we found reciprocal relationships, suggesting that violent acts correlated with a rise in blame in mass media and that blame in some mass media correlated with escalating violence in what appears to be a cycle. Not surprisingly, violent acts also led to subsequent violent acts.