The coverage of the Iraq war : a comparative study of Al-Jazeera and the CNN

Abstract

This research investigates how the CNN and Al-Jazeera represent their national interests in their coverage of the Iraqi War. It is assumed that the CNN and Al-Jazeera would express different attitudes towards the war since the former belonged to a country supporting the conflict and the latter to the countries that opposed it. Based on the indexing hypothesis and existing literature on war coverage, it is expected that the media would reflect their respective national perspectives on foreign policy in such a crisis. To test this hypothesis, stories from the two channels from the start of the war on March 20, 2003 and to the officially declared end of the war on May 1, 2003 were sampled. A sample of 246 stories was used for content analysis. Overall, the results satisfied the initial expectations of the study. The CNN emphasized the U.S. war efforts, citing primarily U.S. officials, while Al-Jazeera devoted more space to the war victims and to antiwar voices, citing primarily Arab non-official sources. Overall, these results suggest that the CNN had a more pro-war tendency, while Al-Jazeera reflected more antiwar stance. Thus, national interest became an important factor influencing media coverage of conflicts. Considering the overall findings, the CNN followed the interests of an attacking the country, whereas Al-Jazeera reflected the interests of an attacked the country. Thus, the former emphasized the combat U.S.-led construction of post-war Iraq, military operations and the war victims of coalition forces. On the other hand, Al-Jazeera devoted more space to antiwar demonstrations or responses, war effects on society, and the Iraqi casualties.