Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal
Preview Page
Although it has an important role in many different kinds of
disputes, the world of dispute resolution seems to capture the media’s
attention only rarely and in passing. When a major celebrity is
accused of a crime, often the media will report that the case was
“settled” privately, without mentioning the mediation process that
may have taken place between the two parties. On the other hand,
both news and entertainment media seem to be obsessed with disputes
that are solved in a courtroom setting. Shows like Law and Order
have historically dominated prime time, while daytime television
allows celebrity judges to decide civil cases in front of a live
audience. Major trials for criminals like Scott Peterson and O.J.
Simpson have plastered the tabloids, while pundits at every point on
the ideological spectrum spent the latter half of 2014 discussing the
Michael Brown grand jury trial in Ferguson.
Although pop culture encourages people to become familiar with
courtroom jargon and the drama of a trial, anyone who has not taken a
course on mediation is unlikely to have more than a vague notion of
what mediation entails. How, exactly, a settlement may be reached is
a process few are familiar with, unless they find themselves thrown
into the process in a personal or work-related dispute. Especially in
areas of the country where labor unions are not very common, the
average working person may lack a basic understanding of what
mediation has to offer and when it can be used. With these thoughts in
mind, this paper aims to explore the news media’s treatment of
mediation in a variety of locations and types of cases. Four cases in
particular will be discussed, with a summary followed by a
commentary exploring how the reporter portrayed mediation to
readers--as a useful tool, as an expression of stalemate, or perhaps
something else altogether. Ultimately, it will become apparent that the
media often mentions mediation as a sort of last-ditch effort when
parties’ interests are fundamentally opposed, and news accounts of
the cases tend to focus on the parties’ conflicting interests rather than
explaining how mediation may be used to solve them.
Olivia Blanchard is a second-year student in the Master of Industrial and Labor
Relations program at Cornell University. Her concentration is dispute resolution, and she
hopes to apply conflict management principles to a corporate setting.
