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 (Table of Contents)

• 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

Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)

This paper examines the reporting of The New York Times on the war in Iraq, analyzing the extent to which the newspaper's coverage was influenced by the US administration's spin and propaganda efforts. The paper aims to understand how the Times responded to the communication campaign launched by the White House in the lead-up to the war.

• The role of the media in a time of war and its relationship to government narratives
• The impact of spin and propaganda on public opinion and political discourse
• The analysis of the New York Times' coverage of the war in Iraq, focusing on editorials and front-page articles
• The identification of spin and propaganda techniques used by the US administration
• The assessment of the Times' journalistic integrity and its ability to remain objective in the face of pressure

Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)

• The preface introduces the topic and the main research question. It argues that the US administration launched an unprecedented communication campaign to justify the war in Iraq, and that the media's role as a watchdog was undermined in the process.
• Chapter 1 defines key terms such as marketing, public relations, spin, and propaganda, comparing and contrasting their meanings and applications.
• Chapter 2 details the communication campaign employed by the US administration to build public support for the war in Iraq. It explores the three main arguments used: Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction, its nuclear program, and its alleged ties to Al Qaeda. The chapter also examines the opposing voices and the techniques used to spin the narrative.
• Chapter 3 outlines the methodology used in the research. It explains the focus on the New York Times, the research question, the examination period, and the analysis composition.
• Chapter 4 analyzes the New York Times' editorials, dividing them into three stages: August to mid-February, mid-February to the start of war, and the period after the war's commencement. It examines the content, rhetoric, and assessment of the coverage in each stage.
• Chapter 5 examines the front-page coverage of the war in Iraq by the New York Times. It analyzes the evidence presented, the opposing voices included, the portrayal of Iraq, the policies discussed, and the communication campaign itself.

Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)

The main keywords and focus topics of the text are: media, spin, propaganda, communication campaign, war in Iraq, US administration, New York Times, journalism, objectivity, neutrality, public opinion, weapons of mass destruction, nuclear program, Al Qaeda. The study explores the influence of spin and propaganda on media coverage and public discourse, focusing on the New York Times as a case study.

• 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