JOUR 4321

Spring 2007

Assignment #2: Media Coverage of the War in Iraq

The air bombing of Iraq began on March 20, 2003, and the war was declared ended on May 1, 2003. Media coverage of the war has become a subject of a great deal of public discussion in the media trade press. One interesting subject is how coverage of this war compared with coverage of the Gulf War of 1990-91. For example, there are significant differences in the ways in which reporting took place, most notably the shift in emphasis from press pools to “embedded journalism.” As a result, we found television reporters and anchors discussing the pros and cons of embedded journalism. Also, technological changes in how news was relayed from the field to print and broadcast outlets became a subject of media coverage.

The aim of this assignment is for you to present and support a coherent argument about what characterized the media coverage of the recent war. Please do so by responding to the following questions:

1. Why did the military command introduce the practice of “embedding” journalists, that is, of allowing reporters to travel to battle sites with the troops?
2. How different was news coverage of the recent war from coverage of the Gulf War? What technological advances were incorporated into the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that were not used in the Gulf War? What effect would you say these advances had on the quality of field reporting? Desk reporting?
3. How important has the Internet been as a source of news during the recent war? What kinds of Internet-based sources have been most heavily used?
4. What can you find to indicate the differences and similarities between U.S. media coverage and coverage by media from other countries?

For this assignment, you should build your paper around a central argument/thesis. In developing a thesis, it would be wise to first do some preliminary research and reading. Once you have decided on a central thesis, you will have a clearer sense of purpose in deciding what additional sources you need. There is no requirement as to the number of sources you need to consult, but you do need to demonstrate that you have done some digging. Some useful sources to consider using are Columbia Journalism Review, American Journalism Review, Editor & Publisher, World Press Review, among others. You’ll be able to get many articles at these web sites, but some of these magazines don’t put all of their articles online, so you may have to go to the library to look at hard copies. You should also use the Lexis-Nexis database (available through Chinook) to search for general newspaper and magazine coverage.

This assignment should be approximately 4-6 double-spaced pages in length, plus a bibliography. It is due in hard copy (no e-mail submissions, please), in class on Thursday, March 22. We will have an open discussion on the topic and your papers during that day’s class meeting.