Diskussionsbeiträge der Projektgruppe Friedensforschung Konstanz, Nr. 53, 2004
Introduction
Based on the concepts of cooperative and competitive conflict (Deutsch, 1973), on the escalation models of Creighton (1992) and Glasl (1992), on a theory of cognitive change during conflict escalation (Kempf, 1996, 2002a), and on Luostarinen's (1986, 2002) propaganda theory, Kempf, Reimann & Luostarinen (1996) designed a content analytical coding schedule for the qualitative analysis of conflict coverage between the two poles of de-escalation-oriented peace journalism on the one hand and escalation oriented war propaganda on the other.
Since then, the coding schedule has been applied to a multitude of case studies on the Gulf War (Elfner, 1998; Gebauer, 2000; Kempf & Reimann, 2002; Kempf, Reimann & Luostarinen, 2001; Reimann, 1997a,b, 1998, 2002), (in a simplified version, designed for quantitative content analysis by Jaeger, Mattenschlager & Meder, 1999) on the conflicts in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo (Jaeger, 2000, 2001; Kempf, W., 1999b, 2002b; Keßler, 2002; Sabellek, 2000, 2001; Wolfer, 2001) (in an extended version of the recent schedule) on former Yugoslavia after the fall of Milosevic (Annabring & Bläsi, 2003; Paskoski, 2003), on the Middle East Conflict (ASPR, 2003; Bucher, 1999; Fahrer, 2000; Kempf, 1999a), and on the Rio San Juan conflict between Nicaragua and Costa Rica (Gutiérrez, 2002) as well as on the El Salvadorian (Nuikka, 1999) and the Northern Ireland (Hamdorf, 2000, 2001; Kempf, 1999a) peace processes and on the German-French relations after World War II (ASPR, 2003; Jaeger, 2003).
During this process, the coding schedule was slightly modified, restructured and translated into Spanish (Kempf & Gutiérrez, 2001) and English (ASPR, 2003).
Designed for coder training, the present paper is based on the most recent version of the coding schedule and presents a checklist of escalation- vs. de-escalation-oriented aspects of conflict coverage along with a catalog of examples from the empirical case studies which may help to get a better understanding of the various dimensions and variables of the coding schedule.
For the purpose of documentation, the paper also presents prior (qualitative and quantitative) versions of the checklist as well as an extended version of the (qualitative and quantitative) coding system, designed for the analysis of post-war coverage on Yugoslavia after Milosevic.
© 2004 by verlag irena regener berlin