Mediation and Mediatization

Ben O’Loughlin provides a few more examples why complete information freedom isn’t always in the public interest:

When delicate political negotiations are needed, perhaps journalists need to get out of the way. Gadi Wolfsfeld’s studies of peace processes have shown how journalistic discretion in Northern Ireland created space for political leaders to make individual compromises. Such compromises would probably each have been unacceptable to their constituencies if lit up by a media spotlight, but only became public once the full package of a peace treaty was reached (Bono had to wait). Past negotiations between Israeli leaders with their Jordanian or Palestinian counterparts have been less successful in part because journalists in the region have tended more towards the sensationalist and the partisan.

But. Check out how O’Loughlin juxtaposes this study to another one on the formation of the Cameron government. Political events can be “mediatized” even when they’re not “mediated.” So…. ?