'War on Terror'. a Study of Attribution in Elite Newspaper Coverage
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Sourcing and Framing the 'War on Terror'. A Study of Attribution in Elite Newspaper Coverage. Morgan Stack (B.Sc M.Acc MBS) Supervisor: Dr. Kevin Rafter School of Communications Dublin City University A thesis submitted to Dublin City University in candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. PhD June 2013 DECLARATION I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of Doctor of Philosophy , is entirely my own work, that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed: ____________________ (Candidate) ID No.: 59110937 Date:_______________________ 2 ABSTRACT The 'war on terror', described as the most important framing case of our time, is analysed in this study of elite newspaper coverage primarily in terms of the 'attribution of responsibility' for specific terrorist attacks. This is justified by the role of attribution in terms of 'primary definition', the exertion of political power in the text, and the constitutive role of attribution in public opinion formation. In addition to an analysis of how the coverage 'framed' attribution, the study also attempts to speak to the validity or otherwise of the 'mythical metanarrative' interpretation of the 'war on terror'. The study proceeds to analyse the nature of news sources drawn upon in the coverage, most specifically again with respect to the construction of attribution. The latter necessitates the creation of a novel coding scheme to distinguish the specific nature of attributive 'contributions' by various news sources, and in this manner it is hoped to explicate the nature of the ‘discursive regime’ employed which specified who could speak, what they could speak about, and in what circumstances. The three case studies chosen for analysis are the Bali attacks of 2002, the London attacks of 2005 and the Mumbai attacks of 2006, as reported in the first seven days by The Sydney Morning Herald , The Times of London , The Times of India and The New York Times . The study concludes with the presentation of an explanatory framework that situates the most significant factors influencing newspaper coverage at the ideological, political and media routine levels, before constructing an evaluative framework that judges the coverage by three commonly accepted standards of normative journalistic performance. Finally, a new ‘contingent model’ of primary definition is proposed. 3 DEDICATION To my parents. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank my two supervisors, Professor Farrel Corcorcan and Dr. Kevin Rafter. I could not have been more fortunate in either instance. In addition, I would like to thank Professor Jim Fetzer, Dr. Webster Tarpley and Captain Eric May. Apart from their status as three of the world's leading authorities on the 'war on terror', I am honoured to call each of them my friend. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 Introduction ______________________________________________________ 11 1.1 The War on Terror. __________________________________________________________ 11 1.2 Journalism Research. ________________________________________________________ 12 1.3 News Framing & Sourcing. ____________________________________________________ 14 1.4 Attribution & Cognition. _____________________________________________________ 16 Chapter 2 - Literature Review. ________________________________________________ 22 2.1 The Sociology of News. ______________________________________________________ 22 2.1.1 Schools of Thought. ________________________________________________________________ 23 2.1.1.1 The Chicago School. ____________________________________________________________ 24 2.1.1.2 Functionalism. ________________________________________________________________ 27 2.1.1.3 Marxism. ____________________________________________________________________ 28 2.1.2 Theoretical Approaches. ____________________________________________________________ 31 2.1.2 Economic. _____________________________________________________________________ 33 2.1.2 Political. _______________________________________________________________________ 34 2.1.2 Social Organisation. _____________________________________________________________ 39 2.1.3 Cultural. _______________________________________________________________________ 43 2.1.3 Levels of Analysis. _________________________________________________________________ 44 2.2 News Framing. _____________________________________________________________ 45 2.2.1 Introduction. _____________________________________________________________________ 45 2.2.2 Media & Individual Frames. _________________________________________________________ 48 2.2.3 Frames as Independent or Dependent Variable. _________________________________________ 49 2.2.4 The Process Model of Framing. ______________________________________________________ 51 2.2.5 Framing Terrorism & The War on Terror. ______________________________________________ 55 2.3 News Sourcing. _____________________________________________________________ 58 2.3.1 Introduction. _____________________________________________________________________ 59 2.3.2 Organisational Influences. __________________________________________________________ 61 2.3.3 Environmental Influences. __________________________________________________________ 64 2.3.4 News Source Typologies. ___________________________________________________________ 70 2.3.5 Sourcing Terrorism & The War on Terror. ______________________________________________ 73 2.4 Terrorism & The War on Terror. _______________________________________________ 75 2.4.1 Origins & Introduction. _____________________________________________________________ 75 2.4.2 Typologies of Terrorism. ____________________________________________________________ 78 2.4.3 The Media & Terrorism. ____________________________________________________________ 81 2.4.4 The War on Terror. ________________________________________________________________ 84 2.5 Press State Relations. ________________________________________________________ 88 2.5.1 Introduction. _____________________________________________________________________ 88 2.5.2 Philosophy of the Press. ____________________________________________________________ 89 2.5.3 Normative Media Theory. ___________________________________________________________ 90 2.5.4 Hegemony. ______________________________________________________________________ 91 6 2.5.5 Indexing. ________________________________________________________________________ 94 Chapter 3 Methodology. ____________________________________________________ 99 3.1 Introduction. _______________________________________________________________ 99 3.2 Selection of Dataset. ________________________________________________________ 99 3.3 Research questions. ________________________________________________________ 103 3.4 Content Analysis. __________________________________________________________ 105 3.4.1 Coding Schedule. _________________________________________________________________ 109 3.4.1.1 Official Sources. ______________________________________________________________ 109 3.4.1.2 Non-Official Sources. __________________________________________________________ 111 3.5 Framing Theory. ___________________________________________________________ 113 3.5.1 Frame Identification. ______________________________________________________________ 115 3.5.2 Inductive. _______________________________________________________________________ 115 3.5.4 Deductive. ______________________________________________________________________ 116 3.5.5 The Level of Analysis Problem. ______________________________________________________ 117 3.5.6 Review of Survey Population. _______________________________________________________ 119 3.5.6 Attribution of Responsibility. _______________________________________________________ 120 Chapter 4 Framing Attribution. ______________________________________________ 124 4.1 Introduction. ______________________________________________________________ 124 4.2 Bali Bombings 12 October 2002. ______________________________________________ 125 4.2.1 Official Framing. _________________________________________________________________ 126 4.2.1.1 Islamic Extremists. ____________________________________________________________ 126 4.2.1.2 Jemaah Islamiyah. ____________________________________________________________ 127 4.2.1.3 Al Qaeda. ___________________________________________________________________ 131 4.2.1.4 Abu Bakar Bashir._____________________________________________________________ 132 4.2.2 Counter Framing. ________________________________________________________________ 135 4.2.4 Conclusions._____________________________________________________________________ 139 4.3 London Bombings 07 July 2005. _______________________________________________ 142 4.3.1 Attributions – Before 13 July 2005. __________________________________________________ 144 4.3.1.1 Islamic Extremists. ____________________________________________________________ 144 4.3.1.2 Al Qaeda. ___________________________________________________________________ 144 4.3.1.3 Individuals. __________________________________________________________________ 148 4.3.2 Attributions – After 13 July 2005. ____________________________________________________ 152 4.3.2.1 The Mastermind. _____________________________________________________________