Alternative and Mainstream Media Coverage of Drone Strikes
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KILLING IN SILENCE: ALTERNATIVE AND MAINSTREAM MEDIA COVERAGE OF DRONE STRIKES Brion White A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2015 Committee: Joshua Atkinson, Advisor Cynthia A. Hendricks, Graduate Faculty Representative Clayton Rosati Oliver Boyd Barrett ii ABSTRACT Joshua Atkinson, Advisor This dissertation focuses on the media coverage of U.S. drone strikes by both mainstream and alternative media sources. Chapter 1 introduces some background on alternative media and drone strikes and introduces the main points of the project. Chapter gives an extended literature review of ideology, media and power and alternative media to establish the parameters of the study and establish previous work on similar topics. Chapter 3 establishes both the method and methodology of the study, including why I conducted the study I did and how I processed the information from both mainstream and alternative media. Chapter 4 includes the results from both the mainstream media and alternative media texts I used in this study. Finally, Chapter 5 reviews my contributions to the literature along with future research based on the findings of this study. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................. 23 Ideology..................................................................................................................... 23 Early Foundations: Gramsci, Althusser, Adorno, Habermas ......................... 23 The Discursive Turn: Narrative and Ideology ................................................ 43 Narrative and News Media…......................................................................... 58 Media and Power......................................................................................................... 70 Political Economy and Media ........................................................................ 71 Framing .......................................................................................................... 75 Hierarchies of Influence ................................................................................. 78 Indexing Theory ............................................................................................. 82 Alternative Media………………………………..………….. ..................................... 92 Alternative Media and Drone Strikes…………….. ....................................... 100 Alternative Media and Mainstream Media Intersections ............................... 103 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 112 CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY AND METHODS ........................................................ 114 Epistemology………………………………………………. .................................... 114 Qualitative Research…………………………………… ........................................... 117 Method: Qualitative Content Analysis of Narrative Categories… ............................. 123 Narrative Categories…………………………………… ............................... 128 The Current Project………………………………………………. ............... 130 iv CHAPTER IV. RESULTS .................................................................................................... 139 USA TODAY…………………………………………………… ............................. 140 Setting…………………………………………….. ....................................... 140 Af/Pak……………………………………………… ......................... 142 Pakistan………………………………………….. ............................ 144 U.S. /D.C…………………………………………. ........................... 151 Yemen………………………………………………….. .................. 152 Characters…………………………………………… ............................................... 155 Terrorists………………………………………… ............................ 156 Obama……………………………………………. ........................... 163 Action……………………………………………………….. ................................... 170 Drone Strike As Foreign Policy Choice……………. ........................ 171 Focus ............................................................................................................ 175 U.S. Relationship with Other Countries…………….. ....................... 176 How U.S. Can End Terrorism……………………. ........................... 179 Tone…………………………………. ...................................................................... 182 Ambivalence…………………………………………….. ................. 182 The New York Times ............................................................................................................ 185 Setting…………………………………….. ............................................................... 187 Afghanistan……………………………………………….. .............. 187 Pakistan…………………………………………………… .............. 190 Yemen……………………………………………………. ............... 192 The U.S……………………………………………. ......................... 195 v Characters……………………………………………… ........................................... 200 Osama Bin Laden…………………………………… ....................... 201 Anwar al-Awlaki………………………………… ............................ 205 Barack Obama…………………………………… ............................ 211 Action……………………………………………………. ........................................ 220 Focus ........................................................................................................... 225 U.S. and Pakistani Relations………………….. ................................ 225 U.S. Discourse on Drone Strikes…………….. .................................. 228 Tone…………………………………………………….. ......................................... 234 Confidence…………………………………… ................................. 235 Uncertainty………………………………….. ................................... 241 Alternative Media…………………………………………… ............................................... 246 Setting ............................................................................................................ 248 Yemen…………… ............................................................................ 249 Pakistan……………….. .................................................................... 253 The U.S……………………………. ................................................. 258 Characters ............................................................................................................ 263 The Obama Administration…………………. ................................... 264 John Brennan……………………….. ................................................ 271 Action………………………….. ............................................................................... 275 Impact of Drone Strikes…………………………. ............................ 276 Focus…………………………………… .................................................................. 283 Human Rights in the World………………….. ................................. 284 vi Rules and Legality of Drone Strikes .................................................. 287 Tone ............................................................................................................ 291 Critical and Assertive ......................................................................... 292 Intersections ............................................................................................................ 295 Kenix‘s, Alternative Media and Mainstream Media Intersections ................... 296 Intersection 1: Mainstream Media Using Alternative Media Actors ......................... 306 Intersection 2: Access to Similar Content Information Intersection ....................... 314 Intersection 3: Ordinary People as Sources ................................................................ 332 Intersection 4: Alternative Media Intersections and Brand Awareness ..................... 337 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION .............................................................................................. 353 Alternative Media ....................................................................................................... 354 Media and Power… .................................................................................................... 359 Ideology ............................................................................................................ 366 Cultural Militarism… ................................................................................................. 368 Additional Future Research ........................................................................................ 371 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 373 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION The current political landscape continues to move away from the free flow of information from the government to the populace and instead places a priority on security. During the current presidency, the Obama administration has prosecuted more people under the Espionage Act for the leaking of government information than all other administrations combined (Van Buren, 2012). While this attack on truth telling continues, corporate profits are the highest in the U.S. since WWII (Lynch, 2013). In this time of criminalizing dissent juxtaposed with unprecedented corporate wealth, scholars attempt to use a number of different theories to provide a new way to look at both economic and political problems. The relationship between media and power provides a specific lens to examine how a populace engages in the political and economic discussion in society. The relationship