Showing papers in "Media, War & Conflict in 2018"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the coverage of specific, salient conflict events and found that media have been shown to focus on violence, and that most existing scholarship has focused on violence.
Abstract: In its search for media influences in violent conflict, most existing scholarship has investigated the coverage of specific, salient conflict events. Media have been shown to focus on violence, sid...
67 citations
TL;DR: This paper analyzed 795 tweets published by the Israeli MFA during the 2014 Gaza War and found that the MFA used images to support these frames and it is through images that the linguistic frames were made to resonate with Israeli strategic narratives.
Abstract: Recent years have seen the migration of Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs) to social media in a practice referred to as digital diplomacy. Social media enable MFAs to craft frames so as to influence audiences’ perception of foreign affairs. Such framing is especially relevant during times of war as states seek to legitimize their policies. Notably, given that social media are inherently visual platforms, MFAs are now visual narrators. Few studies to date have extended the reach of framing theory to that of digital diplomacy during conflict. This study addresses this gap by analysing 795 tweets published by the Israeli MFA during the 2014 Gaza War. The authors’ analysis demonstrates that the Israeli MFA crafted 14 linguistic frames that were used to legitimize Israel’s policies. Notably, the MFA used images to support these frames and it is through images that the linguistic frames were made to resonate with Israeli strategic narratives. The authors pay attention to how images published by the Israeli MFA constitute three visual tropes and highlight how images function to augment frames (which focus on the present) to broader narratives that involve the past, present and future. Here, they explore how images invoke the past to illuminate the present and future, and create a shared identity in the context of the Gaza War.
47 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the way conflict coverage comes into being, based on interviews with 215 conflict journalists and 315 reconstructed articles, and used retrospective reconstruction to in-vivo reconstructions of conflict coverage.
Abstract: Based on interviews with 215 conflict journalists and 315 reconstructed articles, this article explores the way conflict coverage comes into being. The study used retrospective reconstruction to in...
37 citations
TL;DR: The role of the news media in violent conflicts is a topic that has received a great deal of scholarly attention especially in the field of political communication as mentioned in this paper, and a major issue that has emerged i...
Abstract: The role of the news media in violent conflicts is a topic that has received a great deal of scholarly attention especially in the field of political communication. A major issue that has emerged i...
28 citations
TL;DR: An overview of established and emerging approaches to frame analysis as a tool for analysing dynamics of political conflicts can be found in this paper, where the authors survey the approaches taken by contribu...
Abstract: This article provides an overview of established and emerging approaches to frame analysis as a tool for analysing dynamics of political conflicts. It first surveys the approaches taken by contribu...
21 citations
TL;DR: This article drew on the first findings of the INFOCORE project to better understand the ways in which different types of media matter to the emergence, escalation or, conversely, the pacification of the conflict.
Abstract: The article draws on the first findings of the INFOCORE project to better understand the ways in which different types of media matter to the emergence, escalation or, conversely, the pacification ...
16 citations
TL;DR: In 2014, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report on CIA detention and interrogation practices from 2002-2009 as mentioned in this paper, and several survey organizations then released polls that appeared to appear to...
Abstract: In December 2014, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report on CIA detention and interrogation practices from 2002–2009. Several survey organizations then released polls that appeared to ...
15 citations
TL;DR: Burundi has garnered international headlines since April 2015 insofar as the country entered a serious political crisis and fell into conflict as mentioned in this paper, and the utilization of social media by the leadership ami...
Abstract: Burundi has garnered international headlines since April 2015 insofar as the country entered a serious political crisis and fell into conflict. The utilization of social media by the leadership ami...
15 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the framing of Boko Haram, a transnational terrorist group, in legacy and social media platforms, and the discussion is predicated on the understanding that in spite of its popu...
Abstract: This article focuses on the framing of Boko Haram, a transnational terrorist group, in legacy and social media platforms. The discussion is predicated on the understanding that in spite of its popu...
13 citations
TL;DR: This article conducted an interpretative analysis of NGO output and media coverage to investigate the relative visibility of NGOs in the media over time and found evidence of rising NGO visibility and growing reliance on new types of semi-local NGOs for the provision of factual news about the conflict and human rights violations.
Abstract: It is often argued that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have become increasingly visible in media discourses on armed conflict and thus play a growing role in shaping states? foreign policies. However, there is little investigation of their influence on specific conflict coverage and what types of NGOs are influential, in what way and under what conditions. The authors elaborate a ?supply and demand? model of growing or declining NGO influence to theorize these dynamics and take Syria?s civil war from 2011?2014 as a ?best case? for testing it. They conducted an interpretative analysis of NGO output and media coverage to investigate the relative visibility of NGOs in the media over time. Further, they examine how different NGOs were referred to during two highly salient phases of the conflict for debates about foreign policy: the first escalation of protests and their repression in 2011 and the use of chemical weapons in 2013. They find evidence of rising NGO visibility and growing reliance on new types of semi-local NGOs for the provision of factual news about the conflict and human rights violations. Yet, large international NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch remained the most influential in pushing normative frames and advocating a tough stance on the Assad regime. The article discusses the implications of the findings for the theoretical argument and for broader accounts of NGOs influence.
13 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze the role of non-governmental organizations in conflict-related discourses and play a key role in the shaping of mediated conflict communication, focusing on non-profits' role in mediating conflict.
Abstract: NGOs are significant actors in conflict-related discourses and play a key role in the shaping of mediated conflict communication. Since previous scholarly work has rarely analyzed the way NGOs char...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the post 9/11 US image warfare through an analysis of three sets of enemy capture and killing: Uday and Qusay Hussein, Saddam Hussein, and Osama bin Laden.
Abstract: This article investigates the practice of post 9/11 US image warfare through an analysis of three sets of enemy capture and killing: Uday and Qusay Hussein, Saddam Hussein, and Osama bin Laden. Specifically, the article examines these images in terms of their potential to support, complicate, and/or undermine the strategic narratives of the Bush and Obama administrations as they relate to the Iraq War and the killing of Osama bin Laden, respectively. Today’s new media ecology complicates the relationship between images and strategic narratives. The analysis finds that the capture and death images of the Hussein family primarily served to reinforce the Bush administration strategic system narratives of American dominance and hegemony, the illegitimacy and oppression of the Hussein regime, and of ‘justice’; however, the images can also be interpreted as complicating and potentially undermining these same narratives. The absence of Osama bin Laden death images supported the Obama administration’s counter str...
TL;DR: The authors explored the extent to which political cartoons and comic strips are mediated public and political visual art, the "ninth art" according to Groensteen's The System of Comics.
Abstract: In this article, We explore the extent to which political cartoons and comic strips – as mediated public and political visual art, the ‘ninth art’ according to Groensteen’s The System of Comics (20...
TL;DR: The authors examines the problem of how to interpret competing, clashing or contradictory news frames in coverage of war and conflict, focusing on the reporting of the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.
Abstract: This article examines the problem of how to interpret competing, clashing or contradictory news frames in coverage of war and conflict, focusing on the reporting of the 1992–1995 Bosnian war. ‘Ethnic war’ and ‘genocide’ featured as competing news frames in news coverage of Bosnia and several subsequent conflicts, and are often understood to be contradictory in terms of their implied explanations, moral evaluations and policy prescriptions. The author questions the assumptions that many journalists and academics have made about these frames and the relationship between them. He asks how we can make sense of clashing or contradictory scholarly analyses of these competing frames and considers a number of broader issues for framing analysis: the significance of historical context for understanding the meaning of particular framing devices, the importance of quantification in framing analysis and the role of influential sources in prompting journalists to adopt particular frames.
TL;DR: In the intervening quarter century, framing analysis has been widely taken up as a key method for investigating news coverage of war and conflict, and this special issue aims to initiate a fresh discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of framing as a method for analysing contemporary war coverage, of how and why the method has been refined and modified over the years, and of how it might be developed further.
Abstract: This special issue of Media, War & Conflict marks 25 years since Robert Entman’s seminal 1993 essay, ‘Framing: Towards clarification of a fractured paradigm’, sought to ‘constitute framing as a research paradigm’ for the field of communication. In the intervening quarter century, framing analysis has been widely taken up as a key method for investigating news coverage of war and conflict, and this special issue aims to initiate a fresh discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of framing as a method for analysing contemporary war coverage, of how and why the method has been refined and modified over the years, and of how it might be developed further. The development and increasing use of framing analysis has been neither straightforward nor unquestioned. One legitimate concern is that, as Kevin Carragee and Wim Roefs (2004: 214) argue, researchers have sometimes ‘neglected the relationship between media frames and broader issues of political and social power’. This is – or should be – an important focus of framing analysis, since as Entman (1993: 55) argued, ‘Framing ... plays a major role in the exertion of political power, and the frame in a news text is really the imprint of power – it registers the identity of actors or interests that competed to dominate the text.’ Indeed, it is difficult to see how work on news coverage of war and conflict can justifiably avoid engaging with wider contextual questions of political power. Another concern is that – notwithstanding efforts to unify it – framing remains a ‘fractured paradigm’ to the extent that there are still no settled and standardized rules for operationalizing the method. In practice, individual framing analyses sometimes differ sharply in their procedures, emphases and assumptions. Some have pointed to ‘significant inconsistency’ in the application of framing analysis (De Vreese, 2002: 51), highlighting the risk of idiosyncratic subjective judgements and unreliable results (Gorp, 2005; Hertog and McLeod, 2001; Tankard, 2001). 798992 MWC0010.1177/1750635218798992Media, War & ConflictEditorial editorial2018
TL;DR: The authors compared what African diaspora journalists write about African conflicts with what they say about them and found that they show a preference for factual style and a governing frame, and less preference for a judgmental style.
Abstract: Framing studies consistently conclude that the international news media represent African conflicts negatively and stereotypically. Owing to their focus on media content, however, most framing studies fail to examine the dynamic relationship between journalists’ cognitive role (what they say they do) and their practice role (what they actually do). Using parallel content analysis, this study compares what African diaspora journalists write about African conflicts with what they say about them. The analysis reveals that they show a preference for a factual style and a governing frame, and less preference for a judgmental style, which aligns with what they say, and a slight preference for background context which marginally aligns with what they say. However, low newsroom budgets and advertising revenue could undermine their attempts to de-Westernize the portrayal of African conflicts.
TL;DR: In the history of world wars, the Korean War (1950-1953) was not a forgotten war but the apogee of a propaganda war as discussed by the authors, by analyzing the contents of propaganda leaflets distributed during the Korean war.
Abstract: In the history of world wars, the Korean War (1950–1953) was not a forgotten war but the apogee of a propaganda war. By analyzing the contents of propaganda leaflets distributed during the Korean W...
TL;DR: There is empirical evidence of media influence on parliamentary agenda, especially when media coverage privileges conflict framing of reality and negativity as mentioned in this paper, and this article addresses the impact of the media coverage on the parliamentary agenda.
Abstract: There is empirical evidence of media influence on parliamentary agenda, especially when media coverage privileges conflict framing of reality and negativity. This article addresses the impact of me...
TL;DR: On 30 January 2015, Steven Blaney, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, introduced Bill C-51, also known as the Anti-Terrorism Act in Canada's House of Commons as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: On Friday, 30 January 2015, Steven Blaney, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, introduced Bill C-51, also known as the Anti-Terrorism Act in Canada’s House of Commons. This articl...
TL;DR: The authors examined Kodak photographs made by participant soldiers and photographer-correspondents working in the field for the illustrated press during the concluding phase of the 1883-1898 camp.
Abstract: This article examines Kodak photographs made by participant soldiers and photographer–correspondents working in the field for the illustrated press during the concluding phase of the 1883–1898 camp...
TL;DR: In this paper, the role that the global television news agencies play in the handling of user generated content (UGC) video from Syria is examined, in the almost complete absence of independent journali...
Abstract: This article examines the role that the global television news agencies play in the handling of user generated content (UGC) video from Syria. In the almost complete absence of independent journali...
TL;DR: The authors examines two factors which have become increasingly important in today's multi-channel international media environment, but which add significant extra levels of complexity to framing and analysis of international media, and concludes that these factors add to the complexity of framing.
Abstract: This article examines two factors which have become increasingly important in today’s multi-channel international media environment, but which add significant extra levels of complexity to framing ...
TL;DR: This article explored how one of these devastated spaces is still expressed in the media years after its destruction by examining another act of iconoclasm that occurred in 2001 when the Taliban annihilated the 1,500-year-old Buddhas of Bamiyan statues.
Abstract: The recent annihilation of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud by ISIS represents a disturbing trend in how some terrorist groups are trying to erase historical sites for the cultures they communicate. This study explores how one of these devastated spaces is still expressed in the media years after its destruction by examining another act of iconoclasm that occurred in 2001 when the Taliban annihilated the 1,500-year-old Buddhas of Bamiyan statues. The research explores the conception of negative spaces in communication and the means by which they are created through warfare and terrorism. A frame and critical analysis of popular magazines then assesses how the Bamiyan Buddhas’ identity has been transformed over time, and some of the journalistic practices that have enabled these renderings. The results reveal how the Buddhas have gradually become journalism’s touchstone for modern cultural terrorism, while in 70 percent of the coverage the site’s actual history has been replaced by the narrative of its ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the role of seven national and local Colombian newspapers in promoting governmental or alternative actors and frames regarding institutional, developmental and peace and human rights agendas linked to the Law of Victims and Land Restitution.
Abstract: Law of Victims and Land Restitution, ratified in June 2011 and enforced since January 2012, constitutes an unprecedented attempt to end armed conflict in Colombia by applying a transitional justice framework and fostering rural development. Drawing on a methodology that integrates framing and rhetorical analysis, this paper analyses the role of 7 national and local Colombian newspapers in promoting governmental or alternative actors and frames regarding institutional, developmental and peace and human rights agendas linked to this legislation. In addition, it evaluates the influence of rhetorical framing on media’s role and the resulting quality of media coverage. Our results show that media promoted governmental frames regarding institutional and developmental issues, and alternative frames advocated by other actors in relation to peace and human rights issues. In addition, they confirm the key importance of rhetorical framing in shaping that role. This was detrimental to the quality of media coverage geared towards sustainable peace and human development.
TL;DR: In this article, the debrief of a group of soldiers with a series of long takes is discussed, and it is argued that questions about what sort of war these soldiers are fighting, their reasons for fighting, and the reasons behind the engagement of the Iraqi militia are not considered.
Abstract: footage sounds like war, or what we know of war from the cinema, so it must be war, and like cinema the drama and pacing of the narrative keep us firmly attached to our seats in front of the television’ (p. 159). Regarding what is erased from the lived experience of war, Harris considers her own choice to present the debrief of a group of soldiers with a series of long takes, deliberately making the sequence fairly tedious. ‘I was trying to show the event as a bureaucratic accounting for bullets and bodies spent, where the matter-of-fact attitude of soldiers towards their job of killing was as much a part of war as the drama of the killing and the fighting’ (p. 162). The upshot of the discussion is that, with both examples, Harris argues that ‘questions about what sort of war these soldiers are fighting, their reasons for fighting (other than survival) and the reasons behind the engagement of the Iraqi militia are not considered’ (p. 165). Amid the actual conflict acted out on the battlefield, there is another battle ever-raging: between objective truth and that which must be edited down for a primetime audience. While by no means a thoroughgoing review, this brief discussion should afford some insight into the potential value of this volume. This value will be most keenly felt by researchers interested in cinematic representations of war and conflict, and what must be removed from such representations. This removal could be purely practical, as in the case studies discussed by Harris, or it could be ideological as discussed by Goldstein and others throughout the collection. Regardless, such volumes justify and reinforce the constant need for critical attention on the images and films that emerge from and around conflict: such attention ensures that questions are consistently asked of those responsible for such conflict and the suffering and erasures that inevitably ensue.