One war, different coverage: Exploring cultural influences on international media framing of the Iraq War
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47672/ajc.665Keywords:
News, culture, cultural influences, framing, Iraq WarAbstract
The aim of the study was to demonstrate in empirical terms how cultural forces shape media coverage of global events. To buttress this fact, the spotlight was on international media coverage of the war in Iraq. The Iraq War was a defining media event. To underpin cultural influences on the war coverage, the paper reviewed five studies (Ravi, 2005; Dimitrova & Connolly-Ahern, 2007; Kolmer & Semetko, 2009; Barker, 2012, Gou et al., 2015) on the coverage of the war in different countries. Results revealed that the cultural context within which each news source was situated shaped the news representation of the war. The cultural factors that influenced the coverage were beyond the control of journalists and their media organizations, suggesting that culture is an important variable that should be considered when studying news production and coverage. The findings reinforce the widely held view that news production is shaped by competing influences, including cultural values.
Downloads
References
References
Akinfeleye, R. A. (2011). Essentials of journalism: An introductory text. Lagos: Malthouse Press Limited.
Allen M. (2003, 26 Sept.). Bush: Hussein, al Qaeda linked. Washington Post. Web Edition.
Bagdikian, B. (2000). The media monopoly (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Barker, G. G. (2012). Cultural influences on the news: Portrayals of the Iraq War by Swedish and American media. The International Communication Gazette 74(1), 3-22.
Bennett, W. L. (1996). News: The politics of illusion (3rd ed.). New York: Longman.
Berbers, A., Joris, W., Boesman, J., d'Haenens, L., Koeman, J., & Van Gorp, B. (2015). The news framing of the "Syria fighters" in Flanders and the Netherlands: Victims or terrorists? Ethnicities, 6(16), 798-818.
Berry M., Garcia-Blanco, I., & Moore, K. (2015, December). Press coverage of the refugee and migrant crisis in the EU: A content analysis of five European countries (Report for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees). Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/protection/operations/56bb369c9/press-coverage-refugee-migrantcrisis-eu-content-analysis-five-european.html
Bleiker, R., Campbell, D., Hutchinson, E., & Nicholson, X. (2013). The visual dehumanisation of refugees. Australian Journal of Political Science, 48(4), 398-416.
Blumer, J. G. (1992). Television and the public interest: Vulnerable values in West European Broadcasting. London: Sage.
Bozdag, C., & Smets, K. (2017). Understanding the images of Aylan Kurdi with "small data": A qualitative, comparative analysis of tweets about refugees in Turkey and Flanders (Belgium). International Journal of Communication, 11, 4046-4069.
Ciboh, R. (2007). Mass media in Nigeria: Perspectives on growth and development. Makurdi: Aboki Publishers.
Clausen, L. (2003). Global news communication strategies - 9.11.2002 around the world. Nordicom Review 24(2), 105-116.
Cmeciu, C. (2017). Visualizing Europe's refugee crisis on the "debating Europe" platform. Style of Communication, 9(1), 83-95.
CNN News 7 March, 2003.
De Vreese, C. H., Jochen, P., & Semetko, H. (2001). Framing politics at the launch of the Euro: A cross-national comparative study of frames in the news. Political Communication, 18(2), 107-122.
Dimitrova, D. V., & Connolly-Ahern, C. (2007). A tale of two wars: Framing analysis of online news sites in coalition countries and the Arab world during the Iraq War. Howard Journal of Communications, 18(2), 153-168.
Dimitrova, D. V., Strömbäck, J. (2005). Mission accomplished? Framing the Iraq war in the elite newspapers in Sweden and the United States. Gazette 67(5): 399-417.
Elsamni, A. (2016). Threat of the downtrodden: The framing of Arab refugees on CNN. Arab Media and Society, 22(Spring), 1-15.
Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51-58.
Entman, R. (2004). Projections of power. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Fahmy, S. (2010). Contrasting visual frames of our times: A framing analysis of English-and Arabic-language press coverage of war and terrorism. International Communication Gazette, 72(8), 695-717.
Fahmy, S. S., & Al Emad, M. (2011). Al-Jazeera vs Al-Jazeera: A comparison of the network's English and Arabic online coverage of the US/Al Qaeda conflict. International Communication Gazette, 73(3), 216-232.
Fiske, J. (1989). Reading the popular. London: Unwin Hyman.
Gamson, W. A., & Modigliani, A. (1989). Media discourse and public opinion on nuclear power: A constructionist approach. American Journal of Sociology, 95(1), 1-37.
Gans, H. J. (1979). Deciding what's news: A study of CBS evening news, NBC nightly news, Newsweek, and Time. New York: Pantheon Books.
Gilens, M. (1996) "Race coding" and White opposition to welfare. American Political Science Review, 90(3), 593-604.
Gitlin, T. (1995). The twilight of common dreams: Why America is wracked by culture wars. New York: Metropolitan Books.
Guo, L, Chen, K. Y., Vu, H., Wang, Q., Aksamit, R., Guzek, D., Jachimowski, M., & McCombs, M. (2015). Coverage of the Iraq War in the United States, Mainland China, Taiwan and Poland. Journalism Studies, 16:3, 343-362.
Gurevitch, M., Levy, M., & Roeh, I. (1993). The global newsroom: Convergences and adversities in the globalization of television news. In P. Dahlgren, & C. Sparks (Eds.), Communication and citizenship: Journalism in the public sphere (pp. 195-216). New York: Routledge.
Hadenius, S. (1992). Vulnerable values in a changing political and media system: The case of Sweden. In J. G. Blumer (Ed.), Television and the public interest: Vulnerable values in West European broadcasting (pp. 112-130). London: Sage.
Hafez, K. (2000). Islam and the West in the mass media: Fragmented images in a globalizing world. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Hall, S. (1980). Introduction to media studies at the centre. In S. Hall, D. Hobson, A. Lowe, P. Willis (Eds.), Culture, media, language: Working papers in cultural studies 1972-79 (pp. 117-121). London: Hutchinson and Co.
Hall, S. (1989). Ideology and communication theory. In B. Dervin, L. Grossberg, B. J. O'Keefe, & E. Wartella (Eds.), Rethinking communication: Paradigm issues. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 40-52.
Hall, S. (1996). Gramsci's relevance for the study of race and ethnicity. In D. Morley & K. H. Chen (Eds.), Stuart Hall: Critical dialogues in cultural studies (pp. 409-440). London: Routledge.
Hall, S. (1997). Representation: Cultural representation and signifying practices. London: Sage/The Open University.
Hallin, D. C. (1986). The uncensored war: The media and Vietnam. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hallin, D. C. (1994). We keep America on top of the world. London: Routledge.
Hanitzsch, T. (2008). Comparing journalism across cultural boundaries. In M. Löffelholz & D. Weaver (Eds.), Global journalism research: Theories, methods, findings, future (pp. 93-105). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Hanusch, F. (2012). The visibility of disaster deaths in news images: A comparison of newspapers from 15 countries. International Communication Gazette 74 (7): 655-72.
Hickey, N. (2002). Perspectives on war: Different cultures, different coverage. Columbia Journalism Review 40(6): 40-43.
Hofstede, G. (1979). Value systems in forty countries: Interpretation, validation, and consequences for theory. In L. H. Eckensberger, W. J. Lonner, & Y. H. Poortinga (Eds,), Cross-cultural contributions to psychology (pp. 389-407). Lisse, The Netherlands: Swets and Zeitlinger.
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related values. London: Sage.
Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. London: Harper Collins.
Iyengar, S. (1990). Framing responsibility for political issues: The case of poverty. Political Behavior, 12(1), 19-40.
Kagan, R. (2003). Of paradise and power: America and Europe in the new world order. New York: Alfred A Knopf.
Kalb, M. (1994). A view from the press. In W. L. Bennett & D. L. Paletz, (Eds.), Taken by storm: The media, public opinion, and U. S. foreign policy in the Gulf War (pp. 3-7). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Kellner, D. (1993). The crisis in the Gulf and the lack of critical media discourse. In B. Greenberg & W. Gantz (Eds.), Dessert storm and the mass media (pp. 37-47). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Kim, Y. S., & Kelly, J. D. (2008). A matter of culture: A comparative study of photojournalism in American and Korean newspapers. International Communication Gazette 70 (2): 155-173.
Kogah, V. C. (2007). Essentials of mass media. Owerri: Supreme Publishers.
Kolmer, C., & Semetko, H. (2009). Framing the Iraq War: Perspectives from the American, UK, Czech, German, South Africa and Al-Jazeera news. American Behavioral Scientist 52(5), 643-656.
Lippmann, W. (1965). Public opinion. New York: The Free Press.
Neuman, W. R., Just, M. R., & Crigler, A. N. (1992). Common knowledge: News and the construction of political meaning. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Nwankpa, N. N. (2004). State propaganda in conflict situations: A study of the U.S.-led war in Iraq in 2003. Unpublished Thesis, University of Nigeria.
Peterson, S. (2002, 10 Sept.). Can Hussein be deterred? Christian Science Monitor. Web Edition.
Ramasubramanian, S & Miles, C. (2018). Framing the Syrian refugee crisis: A comparative analysis of Arabic and English news sources. International Journal of Communication 12, 4488-4506.
Ravi, N. (2005). Looking beyond flawed journalism: How national interests, patriotism, and cultural values shaped the coverage of the Iraq War. The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 10 (1), 45-62.
Reese, S. D., Gandy, O. H. Jr & Grant, A. E. (eds.) (2001). Framing public life: Perspectives
on media and our understanding of the social world. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Roskos-Ewoldsen, B., Davies, J., & Roskos-Ewoldsen, D. R. (2004). Implications of the mental models approach for cultivation theory. Communications-Sankt Augustin then Berlin, 29, 345-364.
Schudson, M. (1995). The power of the news. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
Schwartz, S. H. (2004). Mapping and interpreting cultural differences around the world. In H. Vinken, J. Soeters & P. Ester (Eds.), Comparing cultures: dimensions of culture in a comparative perspective (pp. 43-73). Leiden: Brill.
Shen, F. (2004). Chronic accessibility and individual cognitions: Examining the effects of message frames on political advertisements. Journal of Communication 54: 123-37.
Topoushian, M. (2002). Interpreting the constructed realities of the 1991 gulf war: A
comparative textual analysis of two Arab and two north American newspapers. PhD dissertation, Concordia University, Canada.
Uche, L. U. (1989). Mass media, people and politics in Nigeria. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company Limited.
Umechukwu, P. O. J. (2001). Mass media and Nigerian society: Developmental issues and problems. Enugu: Thompson Printing and Publishing Company.
VOA News 12 Jan. 2004.
VOA News 6 March, 2003.
Woodward, B. (2002). Bush at war. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Yang, J. (2003). Framing the NATO air strikes on Kosovo across countries: Comparison of Chinese and US newspaper coverage. Gazette 65: 231-49.
Zhang, X., & Hellmueller, L. (2017). Visual framing of the European refugee crisis in Der Spiegel and CNN International: Global journalism in news photographs. International Communication Gazette, 79(5), 483-510.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
