DOCSLIB.ORG

TELEVISION NEWS and the VISUAL FRAMING of WAR By

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
TELEVISION NEWS and the VISUAL FRAMING of WAR By View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ETD - Electronic Theses & Dissertations PRIME TIME POLITICS: TELEVISION NEWS AND THE VISUAL FRAMING OF WAR By Jennifer Ogg Anderson Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Political Science May, 2011 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Professor John G. Geer Professor Cindy D. Kam Professor Marc J. Hetherington Professor Bruce I. Oppenheimer Professor Vanessa Beasley Copyright © 2011 by Jennifer Ogg Anderson All Rights Reserved To Kevin, with a multitude of thanks for your love, patience and steadfast support iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the financial support of the Vanderbilt Political Science Department and a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation. I am also grateful to the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions for a summer fellowship that provided me with focused time to devote to this work, and to the Research on Individuals, Politics and Society lab of the Vanderbilt political science department for allowing me to conduct my own research study. I am indebted to everyone who has provided support throughout the duration of this project. I am especially grateful to the co-chairs of my dissertation committee. I would like to thank Dr. John Geer for his excellent advice, patience and belief in this project from its inception. The dissertation would not have come to fruition without his leadership, and his professional and personal guidance taught me so much about political science research and life in general. Graduate school would not have been nearly as valuable to me without him for more reasons than I can list here. I would also like to thank Dr. Cindy Kam for her ideal mix of candor, critique and personal encouragement. Her guidance improved the project many times over, and I am consistently amazed at and appreciative of her efficiency and attentiveness. Thank you to the other members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Marc Hetherington, Dr. Bruce Oppenheimer and Dr. Vanessa Beasley, who have each given me invaluable feedback and support. I would also like to express gratitude to members of my family. They have traveled this journey with me step by step. I would like to thank my parents for their love iv and constant faith in me. Most importantly, I would like to thank my infinitely supportive husband, Kevin, and my son, Boone, who provide endless motivation and love. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION………………………………………………………………………..…..iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………iv LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………………..ix LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………….…x Chapter I. WHY VISUALS MATTER………………………………………………..….1 Importance of televised images of violence………………………………..….5 Why television images deserve further study…………………………………9 Previous means of studying images………………………………………….11 Plan of the dissertation……………………………………………………….12 II. NETWORK TELEVISION NEWS AND IMAGES OF WAR: A COMPARISON OF VIETNAM AND IRAQ……………………………….16 Expectations of how Vietnam and Iraq War coverage should differ………..18 Violent images in television news coverage of war: method and results…...20 Data……………………………………………………………………....24 Motivation for analyses……………………………………………….….25 Measures of violence…………………………………………………….26 Personal injury……………………………………………………...……27 Death……………………………………………………………………..28 Explicitness…………………………………………………………...….32 Graphicness……………………………………………………..………..33 Length of violence……………………………………………………….34 Perpetrators and targets of violence……………………………………...36 Frame of violence…………………………………………………….….38 Evaluative tone…………………………………………………………...39 Exposure to television news stories of war: Vietnam versus Iraq………40 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...45 III. CONTRASTING VISUALS IN FOX NEWS AND CNN COVERAGE OF THE IRAQ WAR………………………………………………………..…..47 Partisanship and cable news polarization………………………………...….51 vi Research design……………………………………………………………..54 Results……………………………………………………………………….56 Coverage of war……………………………………………………..…..56 Story length……………………………………………………………...58 Im ages……………………………………………………………………62 Perpetrators and targets of violence……………………………………...65 Tone……………………………………………………………………...66 Frame of violence………………………………………………………..69 Reporting of casualties………………………………………..………….71 Discussion……………………………………………………………………71 IV. EFFECTS OF TELEVISED IMAGES OF VIOLENCE ON PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR WAR………………………………………………...……..75 News coverage and determinants of public support for war…………………76 Hypotheses…………………………………………………………………...79 Methods and Data…………………………………………………………....83 Description of Data…………………………………………………………..91 Findings……………………………………………………………………...92 Discussion…………………………………………………………………...99 V. TELEVISION NEWS AND PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR WAR: AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF IMAGES..101 Determinants of public support for war among individuals………………..102 Research design and expectations………………………………………..…104 Experimental study……………………………………………………..…..105 Treatm ent manipulation………………………………………...………106 Justified frame…………………………………………………………..107 Unjustified frame……………………………………………………….108 Dependent variables………………………………………………………...110 Explanatory variables…………………………………………………….…113 Results………………………………………………………………………115 Effects of framing……………………………………………………....121 Effects of violent images…………………………………………...…..122 Conclusion………………………………………………………………….122 VI. CONCLUSIONS………………………………………………………..…124 Contributions…………………………………………………………...…..127 Implications…………………………………………………………………130 Implications for understanding news media……………………………130 Implications for understanding the responsiveness and accountability of political leaders…………………………………………………………133 Final thoughts……………………………………………………………....136 vii Appendix A. CHAPTER II APPENDIX…………………………………………………138 B. CHAPTER III APPENDIX…………………………………………………141 C. CHAPTER V APPENDIX………………………………………………….145 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………164 viii LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1 Summary of violent war im ages in tele vision news coverage of Vietnam and Iraq…………………………………………………………...…………...….26 2 Average length of network television news stories of war (in seconds)…….42 3 Partisanship of cable news consumers……...……………………………..…52 4 Average length of stories about the Iraq War: CNN versus Fox News….…59 5 Content analyses of violence in Fox News and CNN coverage of the Iraq War, sample of evening news broadcasts 2004-2007…………………….……..…63 6 Violent war images in television news coverage of Iraq: Network news versus cable news……………………….………………………………………..….65 7 Content analyses of non-vis uals in Fox News and C NN coverage of the Iraq War, sample of evening news broadcasts 2004-2007……………………….68 8 Support trends available for the Iraq War……..………………………...…..86 9 Major events in the Iraq War, 2003-2007………………………………....…90 10 Summary statistics, opinion poll as unit of analysis……………………....…93 11 Correlations between polling data and variables from content analysis.….....95 12 Predicting support for U.S. involvement in Iraq……………………………..98 13 Differences of means of key variables………………………………..…….114 14 Predicting support for war……………………………………………….....120 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Images of Violence on March 31, 2004: Killing of American Contractors, Evening News Program Images. Most severe image from Fox News…………...2 2. Images of Violence on March 31, 2004: Killing of American Contractors, Evening News Program Images. Most severe image from CNN (1)……….…….3 3. Images of Violence on March 31, 2004: Killing of American Contractors, Evening News Program Images. Most severe image from CNN (2)……………..3 4. Human Reactions to Violence……………………………………………….……8 5. Images of personal injury in television news coverage of war…………………..28 6. U.S. military deaths: Vietnam and Iraq…………………………………………29 7. Reported U.S. military casualties: Vietnam and Iraq…………………………...30 8. Percentage of lead news stories reporting war casualties……………………..…30 9. Percentage of television news stories showing images of death…………………31 10. Explicitness of television news images of war………………………………..…33 11. Graphic violence in television news images of war…………………………..….34 12. Histograms of Length of Network Television News Stories of War (in seconds)………………………………………………………………...…….44 13. The public’s perception of CNN and Fox News ideology………………...…….48 14. Cable News Decision Making……………………………………………...……57 15. Network News shows more moderate presentations of Perpetrators and Targets of Violence than Fox News and CNN………………………………………………67 16. Percentage of citizens agreeing it was a mistake to send troops to war: Vietnam versus Iraq………………………………………………………………………..77 17. Public support for the Iraq War over time……………………………………….84 x 18. Support trends of the Iraq War by question wording…………………………....87 19. Distribution of Iraq public opinion polls, by month………………………….….89 20. Treatments and subjects of experimental study……………………………...…110 21. Distribution of support for the war in Afghanistan………………………..……112 22. Violence suppresses support for Afghanistan…………………………………..118 23. Vietnam photo: young child running……………………………………….….124 24. Iraq photo: flag-draped coffins………………………………………….……..125 xi CHAPTER I WHY VISUALS MATTER “A picture is worth a thousand words.” -Proverb In one of the most notorious acts of violence of the war in Iraq, four civilian American security contractors were murdered on March 31, 2004. After their vehicles were
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Looking Back to Go Forward: Remaking Detainee Policy*
    Looking Back to Go Forward: Remaking U.S. Detainee Policy* by James M. Durant, III, Lt Col USAF Deputy Head, Department of Law United States Air Force Academy Frank Anechiarico Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law United States Air Force Academy Maynard-Knox Professor of Government and Law Hamilton College [WEB VERSION] April, 2009 © James Durant, III, Frank Anechiarico * This article does not reflect the views of the Air Force, the United States Department of Defense, or the United States Government. “By mid-1966 the U.S. government had begun to fear for the welfare of American pilots and other prisoners held in Hanoi. Captured in the midst of an undeclared war, these men were labeled war criminals. .Anxious to make certain that they were covered by the Geneva Conventions and not tortured into making ‘confessions’ or brought to trial and executed, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large Averell Harriman asked [ New Yorker correspondent Robert] Shaplen to contact the North Vietnamese.” - Thomas Bass (2009) ++ Introduction This article, first explains why and how detainee policy as applied to those labeled enemy combatants, collapsed and failed by 2008. Second, we argue that the most direct and effective way for the Obama Administration to reassert the rule of law and protect national security in the treatment of detainees is to direct review and prosecution of detainee cases to U.S. Attorneys and adjudication of charges against them to the federal courts. The immediate relevance of this topic is raised by the decision of the Obama Administration to use the federal courts to try Ali Saleh Kahah al-Marri in a (civilian) criminal court.
    [Show full text]
  • Prosecuting Crimes Committed by American Military Contractors in Iraq Christopher D
    Penn State International Law Review Volume 27 Article 6 Number 1 Penn State International Law Review 6-1-2008 Reining in Rambo: Prosecuting Crimes Committed by American Military Contractors in Iraq Christopher D. Belen Follow this and additional works at: http://elibrary.law.psu.edu/psilr Part of the International Law Commons, and the Military, War, and Peace Commons Recommended Citation Belen, Christopher D. (2008) "Reining in Rambo: Prosecuting Crimes Committed by American Military Contractors in Iraq," Penn State International Law Review: Vol. 27: No. 1, Article 6. Available at: http://elibrary.law.psu.edu/psilr/vol27/iss1/6 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by Penn State Law eLibrary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Penn State International Law Review by an authorized administrator of Penn State Law eLibrary. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Comments I Reining in Rambo: Prosecuting Crimes Committed by American Military Contractors in Iraq Christopher D. Belen* I. INTRODUCTION On September 16, 2007, American civilians shot and killed seventeen Iraqi civilians on a Baghdad street.' The heavily armed Americans were not tourists or ordinary criminals; they were employed by Blackwater USA, a State Department contractor, and paid to protect the United States Embassy and diplomatic corps in Baghdad.2 Although the reports and investigations consistently concluded the shooting was at least excessive, 3 the possible criminal liability of the individual shooters * J.D. Candidate, 2009, The Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University. I thank my wife, Erika, for her steadfast patience and support.
    [Show full text]
  • Editorial Board Faculty Advisors Junior Staff
    ILSA JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL & COMPARATIVE LAW NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY SHEPARD BROAD LAW CENTER Volume 18 Spring 2012 Number 2 EDITORIAL BOARD CHRISTOPHER BROWN Editor-in-Chief & Executive Board Member ALANA J. FAINTUCH RAYNA KARADBIL Managing Editor & Executive Board Member Executive Editor & Executive Board Member ALICIA ZWEIG RAFAELA VIANNA Lead Articles Editor & Executive Board Member Bilingual CO-Editor & Executive Board Member JANY MARTINEZ JENNIFER LEMBERGER Bilingual CO-Editor & Executive Board Member Subscriptions Editor CRISTINA COSSIO NATHANIEL G. DUTT Lead Technical Editor Associate Technical Editor MICHEL MORGAN MARTAVIS CLARKE Associate Managing Editor Associate Executive Editor NICHOLAS LEROY STACI BURTON Article Editor Article Editor √ FACULTY ADVISORS DOUGLAS L. DONOHO ELOISA C. RODRIGUEZ-DOD JUNIOR STAFF MEMBERS Sharifa Hunter Robert Adams Liza Escapa-Lima Joshua Green Todd Wise Sylvia Cano Michael Rasmussen Anca Oprea Rebecca Rodriguez Rina Bodner Philip Jones Jennifer Valiyi Hillary Rosenzweig Kimberly Stephenson Jonathan Groth Harold Pryor Sasha Stauffer Stephen Mervis Carmen Alonso Rachel Katz Jason Skura Giacomo Bossa Yuna Scott Kenneth Louie Chris Barnett i NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY SHEPARD BROAD LAW CENTER ADMINISTRATION Athornia Steele, B.A., J.D., Dean of the Law School & Professor of Law Leslie Larkin Cooney, B.S., J.D., Associate Dean for Academic Affairs & Professor of Law Josh Metz, B.S., B.S., B.A., C.P.A., Director of Finance and Administration Catherine Arcabascio, B.A., J.D., Associate Dean for International, Online and Graduate Programs and Professor of Law Jennifer McIntyre, B. S., M.S., Assistant Dean for Online Programs Janet Mosseri, B.S., J.D., Associate Director for Student Affairs Lynn Acosta, B.A., M.S., Assistant Dean for Student Services William Perez, B.A., Assistant Dean for Admissions Linda F.
    [Show full text]
  • Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education In
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 481 269 CS 512 494 TITLE Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (86th, Kansas City, Missouri, July 30-August 2,2003) .Media Ethics Division. PUB DATE 2003-07-00 NOTE 315p.; For other sections of these proceedings, see CS 512 480-498. PUB TYPE Collected Works Proceedings (021) Reports Research (143) EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF01/PC13 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Codes of Ethics; Corporations; *Ethical Instruction; *Ethics; Higher Education; *Journalism Education; Journalism History; National Security; News Writing; Newspapers; Photojournalism; Student Diversity; Terrorism IDENTIFIERS Digital Photography; Scandals ABSTRACT The Media Ethics Division of the proceedings contains the following 10 papers: "Punctuation and Epistemic Honesty: Do Photos Need What Words Have?" (Scott Fosdick and Shahira Fahmy); "A Bellwether in Media Accountability: The Work of the New York 'World's' Bureau of Accuracy and Fair Play" (Neil Nemeth); "Eight Arguments for the Importance of Philosophical Thinking in Journalism Ethics" (Hendrik Overduin); "An Examination of Diversity Issues at Southeast Journalism Conference Newspapers" (Kathleen Woodruff Wickham, Amanda Elkin, Sarah S. Hollis, Scarlet Lawrence, Sandra Knispel, Jamee Smith, and Marty Russell); "Balancing News Reporting with National Security in an Age of Terrorism" (David Cuillier); "Bad Apples or Rotten Culture?: Media Discourse on the Corporate Scandals of 2001 and 2002" (David A. Craig and Kristina K. Turner); "Conflicted Interests, Contested Terrain: Journalism Ethics Codes Then and Now" (Lee Wilkins and Bonnie Brennen); "A Gang of Pecksniffs Grows Up: The Evolution of Journalism Ethics Discourse in 'The Journalist' and 'Editor and Publisher'" (Patrick Lee Plaisance); "Questions of Judgment.in the Newsroom: A Journalistic Instrumental-Value Theory for Media Ethics" (Patrick Lee Plaisance); and "Perry Meets Freire: Moral Development's 'Leap of Faith' in the Classroom" (Maggie Jones Patterson and Matthew Gropp) .
    [Show full text]
  • Congressional Record—Senate S834
    S834 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE February 2, 2005 29 other States it has already reached a rate of increase, which outpaces the Since our country’s founding, the crisis point. Seventy percent of doctors growth of our GDP, gross domestic tort system often has been a force of who have practiced in Tennessee for product, it is estimated that per capita justice and positive change, but today more than 10 years have had a claim cost will go above $1,000 by 2006. That that justice is being junked by trial at- filed against them. Does that mean means for a family of 4, there is a tort torneys looking for these multimillion- that 7 out of 10 doctors in one State are tax of about $4,000. dollar windfalls, and that is what we conducting malpractice, bad health The tort system accounts for about need to address. We will take action to care? No, of course not. 2.23 percent of our GDP. That is equal end the abuse in these lawsuits on the If one looks at the studies of obstet- to the entire economy of the State of floor of the Senate. It will be done for rics, OB/GYN, 92 percent have had a Washington or more than that of the the sake of true victims who deserve claim against them. That is 9 out of State of Tennessee, my own State. fair compensation, for the prosperity every 10 doctors who have been deliv- Where does all that money go? Unfor- and health of our people, and for the ering babies for more than 10 years.
    [Show full text]
  • Military Commissions in Light of the Supreme Court Decision in Hamdan V
    S. HRG. 109–881 MILITARY COMMISSIONS IN LIGHT OF THE SUPREME COURT DECISION IN HAMDAN V. RUMSFELD HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JULY 13, 19; AUGUST 2, 2006 Printed for the use of the Committee on Armed Services ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 35–144 PDF WASHINGTON : 2007 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate 0ct 09 2002 16:04 May 08, 2007 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 C:\DOCS\35144.TXT SARMSER2 PsN: JUNEB COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES JOHN WARNER, Virginia, Chairman JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona CARL LEVIN, Michigan JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts PAT ROBERTS, Kansas ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine JACK REED, Rhode Island JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii JAMES M. TALENT, Missouri BILL NELSON, Florida SAXBY CHAMBLISS, Georgia E. BENJAMIN NELSON, Nebraska LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina MARK DAYTON, Minnesota ELIZABETH DOLE, North Carolina EVAN BAYH, Indiana JOHN CORNYN, Texas HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, New York JOHN THUNE, South Dakota CHARLES S. ABELL, Staff Director RICHARD D. DEBOBES, Democratic Staff Director (II) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 16:04 May 08, 2007 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 0486 Sfmt 0486 C:\DOCS\35144.TXT SARMSER2 PsN: JUNEB C O N T E N T S CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WITNESSES MILITARY COMMISSIONS IN LIGHT OF THE SUPREME COURT DECISION IN HAMDAN V.
    [Show full text]