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

<jats:p> 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. </jats:p>