Spinning Coverage

An Analysis of The New York Times' Reporting on the War in Iraq in Light of the U.S. Administration's Spin and Propaganda Efforts

Diploma Thesis , 2008 , 118 Pages , Grade: 1,0

Communications - Media and Politics, Politic Communications

The ongoing war in Iraq was precipitated by a flurry of spin and propaganda originating from the White House. In September 2002, the U.S. administration kicked off a communication campaign almost unprecedented in its dimensions, in order to convince Congress and the public of a military strike in Iraq; a campaign so skillfully woven that a huge part of the U.S. media industry seemed to forget its ‘watchdog’-role and went out of its way to surpass the others in patriotism, critical coverage be damned.

In early 2003, however, many of Washington’s claims and assertions were slowly beginning to get publicly questioned or downright proven wrong by experts and the media, especially when no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq after extensive searches. A question surfaced that had not been explicitly asked in the months before the war: the question whether the administration might have misled the American people into war by exaggerating the threat Saddam Hussein posed to the world and, in order to do so, might even have manipulated evidence.

However, a question just as important is, whether the American media lost sight of its obligations in the run-up to war, and by temporarily neglecting its standards of objectivity and neutrality gave the U.S. administration the platform it needed to actually convince the public of the necessity of military action.

This paper’s primary hypothesis will be that not even a critically acclaimed newspaper like The New York Times was able to evade the White House’s spin and propaganda, but that the coverage got more critical as time went by, even though there was little public self-reflection on behalf of the journalists and editors.

To analyze a possible shift in attitude and reporting, editorials and front page articles about Iraq that included references to the White House’s communication campaign and were published between August 2002 and July 2003 were quantitatively and qualitatively examined.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• PREFACE
• 1. DEFINITIONS
  • 1.1 MARKETING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS (PR)
  • 1.2 SPIN
  • 1.3 PROPAGANDA
  • 1.4 COMPARISON
• 2. THE COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN
  • 2.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE CAMPAIGN
  • 2.2 GENERAL LINE OF ARGUMENTATION
  • 2.3 CLAIM 1: IRAQ HAS WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
    • 2.3.1 WMD: OPPOSING VOICES
    • 2.3.2 WMD: WHITE HOUSE REACTION
  • 2.4 CLAIM 2: IRAQ HAS A NUCLEAR PROGRAM
    • 2.4.1 NUCLEAR PROGRAM: OPPOSING VOICES
    • 2.4.2 NUCLEAR PROGRAM: WHITE HOUSE REACTION
  • 2.5 CLAIM 3: IRAQ HAS TIES TO AL QAEDA
    • 2.5.1 AL QAEDA: OPPOSING VOICES
    • 2.5.2 AL QAEDA: WHITE HOUSE REACTION
  • 2.6 EXCURSUS: IRAQ ON THE RECORD
  • 2.7 SPIN AND PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUES
  • 2.8. A BROADER PERSPECTIVE: THE CAMPAIGN'S ADDITIONAL STRATEGIES AND TACTICS
• 3. METHODOLOGY
  • 3.1 THE NEW YORK TIMES
  • 3.2 RESEARCH QUESTION AND HYPOTHESES
  • 3.3 EXAMINATION PERIOD
  • 3.4 EXAMINATION SUBJECT
  • 3.5 TYPE OF EXAMINATION
  • 3.6 ANALYSIS COMPOSITION
• 4. EDITORIALS
  • 4.1 ARGUMENTATION
    • 4.1.1 STAGE 1: AUGUST TO MID-FEBRUARY
    • 4.1.2 STAGE 2: Mid-FebruARY TO START OF WAR
    • 4.1.3 STAGE 3: COMMENCEMENT OF WAR TO JULY
  • 4.2 ANALYSIS
    • 4.2.1 PREWAR PHASE: CONTENT
    • 4.2.2 PREWAR PHASE: RHETORIC
    • 4.2.3 PREWAR PHASE: ASSESSING THE COVERAGE
    • 4.2.4 WAR PHASE: CONTENT
    • 4.2.5 WAR PHASE: RHETORIC
    • 4.2.6 WAR PHASE: ASSESSING THE COVERAGE
  • 4.3 FINAL ASSESSMENT OF THE EDITORIAL COVERAGE
• 5. FRONT PAGE
  • 5.1 EVIDENCE
  • 5.2 OPPOSITION
  • 5.3 IRAQ
  • 5.4 POLICIES
  • 5.5 COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN
  • 5.6 WAR PERIOD
  • 5.7 EXCURSUS: THE NEWS ANALYSIS
  • 5.8 AUTHOR'S INFLUENCE
  • 5.9 MISCELLANEOUS ASPECTS
  • 5.10 FINAL ASSESSMENT OF THE FRONT PAGE COVERAGE
• 6. CONCLUSION
  • 6.1 COMPARISON OF EDITORIALS AND FRONT PAGE ARTICLES
  • 6.2 ANSWERING RESEARCH QUESTION AND HYPOTHESES
• 7. CLOSING REMARKS
• APPENDIX

Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte

This paper analyzes the coverage of the Iraq War by The New York Times, examining how the newspaper's reporting was influenced by the U.S. administration's spin and propaganda efforts. The paper aims to assess the extent to which the Times' coverage was objective and neutral, and to determine whether the newspaper's reporting contributed to the public's perception of the war.

• The role of spin and propaganda in shaping public opinion
• The impact of the U.S. administration's communication campaign on the media
• The responsibility of the media to provide objective and neutral coverage
• The influence of the New York Times as a major news source
• The evolution of the Times' coverage of the Iraq War over time

Zusammenfassung der Kapitel

The preface introduces the topic of the paper, which is the analysis of The New York Times' coverage of the Iraq War in light of the U.S. administration's spin and propaganda efforts. The preface also outlines the paper's main hypothesis, which is that the Times' coverage was influenced by the administration's campaign, but became more critical over time.

Chapter 1 defines key terms such as marketing, public relations, spin, and propaganda, and provides a comparison of these concepts. Chapter 2 examines the U.S. administration's communication campaign leading up to the Iraq War, focusing on the three main arguments for war: Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction, his ambitions to acquire a nuclear weapon, and Iraq's supposed ties to the terrorist network al Qaeda. The chapter also discusses the spin and propaganda techniques used by the administration.

Chapter 3 outlines the methodology used in the paper, including the research question, hypotheses, examination period, subject, type of examination, and analysis composition. Chapter 4 analyzes the editorial coverage of the Iraq War in The New York Times, examining the argumentation, content, and rhetoric of the editorials. The chapter also assesses the coverage in terms of its objectivity and neutrality.

Chapter 5 analyzes the front page coverage of the Iraq War in The New York Times, examining the evidence presented, the opposition voices included, the portrayal of Iraq, the policies discussed, the communication campaign, the war period, the news analysis, the author's influence, and other miscellaneous aspects. The chapter also assesses the coverage in terms of its objectivity and neutrality.

Chapter 6 concludes the paper by comparing the editorial and front page coverage, answering the research question and hypotheses, and discussing the implications of the findings.

Schlüsselwörter

The keywords and focus themes of the text include the Iraq War, The New York Times, spin, propaganda, media coverage, objectivity, neutrality, U.S. administration, communication campaign, weapons of mass destruction, nuclear program, al Qaeda, and public opinion.

• College: University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück
• Course: Kommunikationsmanagement
• Grade: 1,0
• Author: Nicole Hein (Author)
• Publication Year: 2008
• Pages: 118
• Catalog Number: V181656
• ISBN (eBook): 9783656048312
• ISBN (Book): 9783656047964
• Language: English
• Tags: spinning, coverage, analysis, york, times, reporting, iraq, light, administration, spin, propaganda, efforts, new york times, krieg, irak, berichterstattung, analyse