US Media Coverage of the Iraq War.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq attracted ( and still attracts) media coverage like no other war in history. Many media outlets were accused of bias or broadcasting propaganda.

Around 600 journalists were 'embedded' by the Pentagon in military units in Iraq in a bid to control media coverage of the war. Many scholars such as Robert Entman, believe that this "was a very wise tactic as there were more chances for the journalists to make favourable reports whist embedded with troops than if they had been been asking questions in Washington because of the emotional connection developed when living so closely together".1

Academic Noam Chomsky has stated that the "media acted as propaganda for not questioning the legality of the Iraq war and thus, took on the fundemental assumptions given by the government despite overwhelming public opinion in favour of only invading Iraq with UN authorisation."2

The above posts aim to analyse the media coverage of the Iraq war in relation to the outlets which supported and opposed the concept of Iraq as a Just War.


Below: Noam Chomsky commenting of 'Just War theoty' and the hypocrisy of the US invasion of Iraq in a 2010 BBC interview.3






References:

1. Entman, Robert. "Framing, towards edification of a fractured paradigm." McQuail's Reader in Mass Communication Theory . (2002): 234. Print

2.Bouton, Marshall . The Foreign Policy disconnect: What Americans Want from our Leaders but Don't Get. . Chicago: University of Chicago Press , 2006 . 325. Print.

3 "Noam Chomsky BBC Parts 1/2 ." Youtube . Web. 5 Jun 2011. .