ABSTRACT Title of Document: JAPANESE AND U.S. MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE IRAQ WAR: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS Kazuhiro Maeshima, Ph.D., 2007 Directed By: Professor Miranda Schreurs, Department of Government and Politics This study investigates the relationship between the media and politics by analyzing the Iraq War coverage of two leading U.S. and Japanese newspapers: the New York Times and the Asahi. This dissertation reveals that these two print media, although both liberal in their general orientation, treated the Iraq War differently. First, it quantitatively finds that they are quite distinctive in their choice of main topics. During the run-up period to the war, the Asahi put more focus on the role of the United Nations while the majority of the stories appearing in the New York Times addressed U.S. decisions about Iraq. Second, the dissertation’s qualitative analysis of editorials reveals that a different emphasis on who the “evil” doers in the war are. While the New York Times treated the oppressive Saddam Hussein regime and terrorists as the “evildoers,” the Asahi portrayed the U.S. as the big evil doer. Further, content analysis of articles written by embedded journalists who were with coalition forces in Iraq revealed that the two newspapers’ articles showed significant disparities in the degree of sympathy they showed to the forces. Numerous background factors have influenced this media content. Interviews with Japanese journalists and scholars revealed that the cultures of anti-militarism held by Japanese that originated from Japan’s defeat in World War II remain firm within Japanese news organizations. Anti-militaristic sentiments and cultural factors, such as religion, appear to have influenced how their organizations portrayed the war in Iraq. Further, this dissertation statistically shows that the media’s impact is significant in shaping the political agenda and public opinion. Poll data of Japanese sentiments about the United States show a decline in positive feelings towards the United States as the ratio of negative stories of U.S. Iraq policies carried by the Asahi rose. In addition, the Asahi’s critical assessments of the Japanese government’s Iraq policies showed a moderate negative congruence with public support for their Cabinet. Also, there was a moderate negative relationship between the New York Times’ unfavorable coverage of the U.S. government’s policies of Iraq and presidential approval ratings. JAPANESE AND U.S. MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE IRAQ WAR: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS By Kazuhiro Maeshima Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2007 Advisory Committee: Professor Miranda Schreurs, Chair Professor Margaret Pearson Professor Virginia Haufler Professor Michael Gurevitch Professor Shawn Parry-Giles © Copyright by Kazuhiro Maeshima 2007 Dedication I wish to recognize the sacrifice and endurance of my wife, Hyunsook Kim. Her smile provides motivation for my life, both academic and personal. Without her dedication, I might have terminated this work. Also, I want to express special thanks to my beloved late mother, Miyo. Although her life was too short, she lives on in my mind and in my heart. ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr. Miranda Schreurs, the chair of my committee. This study would not have been possible without her strong support. While I was working on my dissertation, I had several misfortunes. Among those, my mother’s long hospitalization and eventual demise was the toughest. Every time I was in a trouble, Dr. Schreurs’ considerate advice encouraged me. She touches my heart. My dream is to be a wonderful academic mentor like her. I would also like to thank all the members of my committee, Dr. Margaret Pearson, Dr. Michael Gurevitch, Dr. Virginia Haufler, and Dr. Shawn Parry-Giles for their kind help and guidance. Without the teachings I received from professors at the University of Maryland, I could not have navigated to this point in my academic life. I would also like to express my thanks for the help I received from all those whom I interviewed for this dissertation. I am indebted to each one of the scholars and journalists who took precious time out of their daily activities to be interviewed. iii Table of Contents Dedication ................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements.................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents......................................................................................................iv List of Figures......................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1: Introduction---Difference in the Media Cultures of the U.S. and Japan.....1 Section 1 Reporting U.S.-Japan Trade Frictions .....................................................1 Section 2 Reporting on the Enola Gay Controversy................................................6 Section 3 A Pilot Study: Comparing articles about the Asian Economic Crisis .....10 Section 4 Overview of the Dissertation ................................................................13 Chapter 2: Literature Review: Comparing Different Cultures, Comparative Analysis of Political Communication, the Iraq War and the Media, and U.S. and Japanese Foreign Policies .......................................................................................................25 Section 1 Difficulties in Understanding Different Cultures: Peter Winch’s Arguments of Cultural Sensitivities......................................................................25 Subsection 1 Peter Winch’s Criticism of Positivism .........................................26 Subsection 2 Debates between Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, and Others ..........30 Section 2 Political Communications.....................................................................34 Section 3 Comparative Analysis of Political Communications .............................41 Section 4 The Iraq War, and U.S. and Japanese Foreign Policies about the War. ..48 Section 5 The Iraq War and the Media: A Cheerleader of a Watchdog?................55 Chapter 3: Research Designs: Methodologies, Research Questions, Hypotheses and Goal of This Project.................................................................................................65 Section 1 Newspapers to Investigate ....................................................................65 Section 2 Methodologies (1): Content Analysis Strategies for This Work.............67 Subsection 1 Content Analysis .........................................................................67 Subsection 2 Three Content Analysis Strategies ..............................................71 Subsection 3 Coding ........................................................................................74 Subsection 4 Time spans .................................................................................79 Section 3 Methodologies (2): Interviews ..............................................................81 Section 4 Research Questions and Hypotheses .....................................................82 Section 5 Goals and Contributions of this Research Project..................................84 Section 6 Possible limitations of the Research......................................................85 Chapter 4: Content Analyses (1): General Findings..................................................87 Section 1 Main Topics (Major Storylines) and Key Concept ................................88 Section 2 Major Actors of the War.......................................................................91 Section 3 Conclusion ...........................................................................................95 Chapter 5: Content Analyses (2): Prelude to the Iraq War （from October 1, 2002 to March 20, 2003）....................................................................................................96 Section 1 Research Design...................................................................................96 Section 2 Major Results of the Content Analysis..................................................98 Subsection 1 U.S. Policies toward Iraq.............................................................99 Subsection 2 Imminence of the War with Saddam..........................................103 iv Subsection 3 Roles of the United Nations.......................................................105 Subsection 4 Civilian Casualties....................................................................107 Subsection 5 News Sources...........................................................................110 Section 3 Findings and Analyses........................................................................110 Section 4 Conclusion .........................................................................................112 Chapter 6: The Different Notion of “Evilness” in the war in Iraq between the U.S. and Japanese Media: A Content Analysis of Editorials...........................................114 Section 1 Research Design.................................................................................114 Section 2 Major Findings ...................................................................................115 Subsection 1 The Asahi..................................................................................115