Audience reactions to peace journalism : How supporters and critics of the Israeli policy process escalation and de - escalation oriented media frames

This paper reports on an experiment that uses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a natural laboratory for studying how recipients make sense of escalation vs. de-escalation oriented news articles. The results of the study indicate that media frames and individual frames have both a direct effect and complex interaction effects on participants' text understanding. Particularly the effect of media war frames diminishes if they are incongruent with participants' individual frames, and the propaganda function of reports about violence and human casualties can be neutralized if framed according to a peace frame. If participants had a priori positioned themselves in favor of the perpetrator, they may produce reactance, however.