Authors:Nili Steinfeld, Ohad Shaked Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This study addresses questions of access and agency as they come into play in intergroup contact. In such a context, access to information about the outgroup and conflict, as well as active agency in the form of engagement in intergroup discussions about the conflict, group identity, goals and compromises, are often a function of the intensity and effect of the contact. Although intergroup contact has been proven to be efficient in reducing stereotypes and advancing mutual understanding, these effects are inconsistent. The authors introduce eye tracking as a method for assessing participant engagement and attention as predictors of the contact effect on participants. They examine this approach through the use of simulated virtual contact, an innovative method which allows citizens direct access to information about and from the outgroup, and emphasizes participant agency by increasing participant control over the session. Israeli students participated in a simulated virtual contact with a Palestinian while their ocular behaviour was recorded. Anger and hatred toward Palestinians decreased after the session. Perception of Palestinian trustworthiness and ability to change increased. Desire to access information about Palestinians, changes in the belief of Palestinian ability to change, acknowledgment of a shared identity and support for compromises all correlated with visual attention to the speaker, leading to reflections on the relationship between attention and contact intensity and effect. Practical recommendations for promoting participant attention and possibly increasing contact effect are discussed, and the article concludes with a general theoretical discussion on the use of eye tracking for measuring contact intensity and designing better contact experiences. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2021-05-05T06:53:12Z DOI: 10.1177/17506352211013485
Authors:Richard Stupart Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This article examines the role of emotion in the practices of journalists reporting on conflict and its effects in South Sudan, based on a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews and ethnographic observations of the working routines of journalists from Nairobi, Kampala and Juba. Contrary to perceptions of emotion as an akratic failure to reason in a rational, detached manner, obligations felt to people and situations can be understood as rational, information-bearing guides to action, directing journalists to consider personal ethical norms that may sit in tension with the norms of their professional roles as they understand them. The presence of such feelings in the case of journalists committed to a norm of emotional detachment in their work points to the moral incoherence of norms of detachment in (at least) journalism of this type. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2021-05-03T07:26:18Z DOI: 10.1177/17506352211013461
Authors:Marnie Ritchie Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This article argues that the US War in Afghanistan, given its status as a Long War, must contend with a specific visual form that threatens to disclose that the war is an irreversible failure: the ‘visual quagmire’. A visual quagmire is a visualization of a nation’s catastrophic, self-inflicted entanglement in war. In ‘Cluster fuck: The forcible frame in Errol Morris’s Standard Operating Procedure’ (2010), Linda Williams argues that the ‘cluster fuck’ is the ‘most eloquent figure of the American entanglement in Iraq’. This essay proposes that the ‘visual quagmire’ is an eloquent figure of the failure of America’s networked war in Afghanistan. To support this, this essay analyzes the widely criticized PowerPoint slide depicting counterinsurgency dynamics in Afghanistan, which was presented to the then Commander of US Forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley A McChrystal in summer 2009. Elaborating on the form of the ‘visual quagmire’ underscores the importance of theorizing the processual emergence of quagmires and indexes that US military forces are responsible for strategic misguidance through how they visualize war. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2021-04-19T09:25:46Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220985272
Authors:Lidia Peralta García, Tania Ouariachi Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This article analyses the dangers and threats faced by Syrian journalists covering the conflict since the pro-democracy protests erupted in March 2011. While most Western research on the Syrian Revolution has focused on the working difficulties faced by correspondents, parachutists or foreign freelancers, this article scrutinizes the working conditions for Syrian content providers. Syrian journalists’ testimonials of fear and their perception of danger and vulnerability provide a humanistic lens not only on the scope of what revolution and war mean to many who have lived it and been transformed by it, but also on the reality of informing in dangerous contexts. The study contemplates the practitioners’ working risks and perceptions of fear and threats, as well as their personal security measurements. The characterization of fear during the militarization of the rebellion as a semi-normalized way of life, suggested by Pearlman’s article, ‘Narratives of fear in Syria’ (2016), allows the authors to place their study in a conceptual frame. The implementation of a survey answered by 82 Syrian journalists was complemented by semi-structured interviews with a selected group of 12 participants. In a context in which 86.6 percent of the respondents had colleagues who had died while working, the findings illustrate that Syrian reporters and media activists perceive their work as extremely dangerous. In the perception of fear, the adoption of personal safety measures by practitioners does not always contribute to decreasing it; the trauma experience can act both as a paralysing and empowering working factor. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2021-03-22T05:21:06Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635221999377
Authors:Martin Kerby, Margaret Baguley, Richard Gehrmann, Alison Bedford Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. During the catastrophic 2019 and 2020 bushfire season and the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020, Queensland’s Courier Mail regularly celebrated firefighters and health workers as national archetypes. By positioning them as the ‘new Anzacs’, the Courier Mail was able to communicate an understanding of the crises using a rhetoric that was familiar, unthreatening and reassuring. The firefighters, both professional and volunteer, were easily subsumed into the mythology’s celebration of national identity. As Queensland’s health workers were predominantly female, urban-based and educated, the article used a more modern iteration of the Anzac mythology better suited to this different context. The emergence of a ‘kinder, gentler Anzac’ in the 1970s and its focus on trauma, suffering and empathy proved equally useful as a rhetorical tool. Both approaches were underpinned by a move away from a narrow military context to the Anzac mythology’s standing as a civic religion that celebrates more universal values such as courage, endurance, sacrifice and comradeship. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2021-02-15T11:49:53Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635221990939
Authors:Matthew Pressman, James J Kimble Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. Drawing upon media framing theory and the concept of cognitive scripts, this article provides a new interpretation of the context in which the famous World War II photograph ‘Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima’ appeared. This interpretation is based primarily on an examination of American newspaper and newsreel coverage from the Pacific island battles prior to Iwo Jima. The coverage – especially the pictorial coverage – often followed a three-step sequence that showed US forces proceeding from a landing to a series of skirmishes, then culminating with a flag-raising image. This created a predictable cognitive script. That script, combined with other framing devices found in the news coverage (such as metaphors and catchphrases), conveyed the misleading message that the Allies’ final victory over Japan was imminent in early 1945. The Iwo Jima photo drove home that message more emphatically than anything else. This circumstance had profound implications for government policy at the time and, in retrospect, it illustrates the potency of media framing – particularly in times of crisis or war. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2021-02-06T06:27:10Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635221990941
Authors:Gregory Asmolov Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. Much attention has been dedicated to how digital platforms change the nature of modern conflict. However, less has been paid to how the changes in the nature of warfare affect everyday lives. This article examines how digital mediation allows a convergence of the domestic environment and the battlefield by offering new ways for participation in warfare. It contributes to the discussion of how new participatory affordances change the nature of conflicts and whether they empower users or offer institutional actors more control over users. To this end, this research explores the transformation of domestic spaces, mediated via memes, as digital artefacts of participatory culture (see Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, 2009, by Henry Jenkins). Building on the notion of domestication (see Domesticating the Revolution: Information and Communication Technologies and Everyday Life, 1993, by Roger Silverstone), the article conducts a discursive analysis of memes referring to the notion of ‘sofa warfare’ – an ironic description of internet users taking part in conflict without leaving their own sofas – in the context of the Russia–Ukraine conflict. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2021-02-03T06:05:54Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635221989568
Authors:Sara Creta Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. Situated at the intersection of digital migration studies, social movement studies and critical citizenship studies, this article explores how people on the move (migrants, refugees) in Libya use digital media to raise rights violations and to challenge European Union (EU) polices and UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) practices. To examine how digital media provide a ‘space of appearance’ for people on the move in Libya, the study presents a qualitative thematic analysis of 49 posts and 986 comments published on the official Facebook page of UNHCR Libya between January 2018 and January 2019. Major themes include criticisms of UNHCR services and EU policies as well as the raising of human rights issues surrounding detention and evacuation. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how digital media enable people on the move to raise rights claims, contest official narratives and become active narrators of their individual struggles with the system of control and exclusion that is so deeply embedded in the discourse of securitized humanitarian care at Europe’s border. At the same time, it highlights how issues of digital access and communicative capacity influence visibility and self-expression in the digital space of appearances. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2021-01-27T09:43:52Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635221989566
Authors:Sanem Şahin Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. Covering a conflict for journalists when they are members of one of the conflicting parties has some professional and moral dilemmas. It creates tensions between their professionalism and sense of belonging to their community. This article, focusing on journalism on both sides of Cyprus, explores how journalists think of their role in conflict-affected societies. Based on semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with journalists from the Turkish Cypriot media and Greek Cypriot media, it explores journalists’ self-reflection of their roles and the forces they believe that affect their work when reporting on the Cyprus conflict. The findings show journalists do not have a fixed identity but a changeable one. They renegotiate and reproduce the meaning and role of journalism in society, and move between professional and ethnic identities depending on the state of the conflict. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2021-01-09T10:31:54Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220987746
Authors:Santiago Tejedor, Laura Cervi, Fernanda Tusa Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. A total of 324 journalists have been killed in the world in the last decade. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the situation is alarming. Based on these statistics, this work presents an investigation with journalists from 10 countries. Based on in-depth interviews and the Delphi method, the study explores professionals’ perspectives about violence against journalists, pointing out the challenges for women, the role of independent media together with journalists’ networks and an increasing concern about governmental control over information. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-12-11T07:20:15Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220971004
Authors:Sabrina Gabel, Lilian Reichert, Christian Reuter Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. Social media have come to play a vital role not only in our everyday lives, but also in times of conflict and crisis such as natural disasters or civil wars. Recent research has highlighted, on the one hand, the use of social media as a means of recruitment by terrorists and, on the other hand, the use of Facebook, Twitter, etc. to gain the support of the population during insurgencies. This article conducts a qualitative content analysis of content on Twitter concerning the conflict in the Jammu and Kashmir region. The tweets following the death of a popular militant, Burhan Wani, cover three different themes: (1) criticism of intellectuals; (2) Burhan Wani’s impact on the conflict; and (3) tweets referring to the conflict itself. Generally, people use Twitter to make their own point of view clear to others and discredit the opposing party; at the same time, tweets reflect the antagonism between the two parties to the conflict, India and Pakistan. The sample of tweets reflects the lack of awareness among people in the region regarding the motivations of the new generation of militancy emerging in Kashmir after 1990. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-12-11T07:19:43Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220970997
Authors:Michael Dokyum Kim Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This study explores the photographic representations of two terrorist incidents, the 2015 Paris attacks and the Beirut bombings, produced by the leading global news agencies. The study conducts a content analysis of the photographs produced by AP, Reuters and AFP to identify the recurring patterns of the images under the discourse of ‘othering’ and ‘grievability’. It is observed that the agencies represented the two incidents differently as they show distinctive patterns in their manners of portrayal. It is argued that the apparent ‘hierarchy of news values’ is accompanied by the ‘hierarchy of human lives’ within the photographic representations, whereby the photographs of the Paris attacks, recognized as an extraordinary event, speak of humanization in which lives of the sufferers are valued while the photographs of the Beirut bombings, seen as an ordinary event, speak of dehumanization, where lives are devalued. Implications for global journalism and news value are discussed. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-12-04T12:23:35Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220974980
Authors:Muhammad Khalil Khan, Cornelius B Pratt Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This study examines the Pakistan military’s strategic use of social media in encouraging and sustaining public support for the ongoing war against terrorism in Pakistan. Its findings indicate that the military used significantly different types of strategic frames in response to a fast-changing, evolving security situation in the country. Framing was used strategically to facilitate public–military and people-to-people engagements. Motivational frames were the most dominant forms of communication used to generate dialogue between the military and the public in the war against terrorism and to enhance public participation in it. This study also indicates that different frames used by Pakistan’s military on social media significantly mediated military engagement with different segments of society during the critical phases of Pakistan’s ongoing war against terrorism. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-11-18T05:44:28Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220972127
Authors:Fabrizio Coticchia, Andrea Catanzaro Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. A growing body of the International Relations (IR) literature has started to pay attention to the concept of ‘strategic narratives’, stressing the role played by storylines in affecting public attitudes. However, the analytical differences between concepts like strategic narratives, master narratives, frames, framing and master frames have been rarely investigated through a comprehensive approach. Very different definitions and perspectives have been adopted in the IR scholarly debate and beyond, while few studies have identified how ideologies underlie frames and narratives. This article aims at filling this gap and makes two claims. First, the process of plot formation, their strategic dimension and the levels at which narratives operate are the special features that distinguish strategic narratives from all other concepts. Second, only by unpacking – from an interdisciplinary perspective – the complex relation between ideology and narratives can we understand the proper conceptual boundaries in the narrative literature. In sum, there are four levels of discourse to be considered: frame, strategic narrative, master narrative and ideology. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-10-30T10:50:44Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220965622
Authors:Kajalie Shehreen Islam Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This article explores the role of the media as a discursive tool in the commemoration of Bangladesh’s war of liberation. The author critically engages with the notion of mediated memory in the foreground of corporate nationalism. Through a discourse analysis of print advertisements published in Bangladeshi newspapers on the country’s Independence and Victory Days over five decades, she traces the use of nationalism in advertising discourse and the shift from a development-oriented approach to corporate nationalism, with the underlying theme of glorification of war. The study found that nationalistic-based discourse is a key theme of Bangladeshi advertisements published on its days of national significance – history and its heroes, symbols and images, poetry and song, are all used to invoke a banal nationalism. These discursive constructions depend largely on the political context but, as long as the political line is adhered to, advertisers are free to use nationalistic discourse to promote their brands, products and services. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-09-17T06:34:29Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220950365
Authors:Zixiu Liu Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This study examines and compares news framing of the protests in Ukraine from 30 November 2013 to 26 February 2014, encompassing three news sectors in the hybrid regime setting of Russia and the liberal democracy of the UK. Following Godefroidt et al.’s (2016) approach in their article in International Communication Gazette 78(8), the findings suggest that, while the Russian media used economic consequences and morality frames in the reporting of the protests reflecting the country’s political rhetoric on Ukraine, the British media preferred a human-interest frame and delivered a primarily one-sided coverage. The confrontational interpretations of the crisis by the Russian and UK media revealed an illiberal trend in both the hybrid regime and the liberal democracy. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-09-15T07:00:26Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220953445
Authors:Yonatan Gonen, Keren Tenenboim-Weinblatt, Zohar Kampf Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. By using information sources from the opponent’s side, the media can introduce alternative viewpoints and broaden the discussion on the conflict. One important information source that has received little attention in research is the other side’s media reports. This study explores the practice of inter-media citations by analyzing Israeli and Palestinian news reports published over a span of 10 years. Based on a computerized quantitative analysis of 235,340 media texts, the authors show how the weaker (Palestinian) side relies more heavily on the media of the stronger side (Israel) than vice versa. During escalations or negotiations, the rate of use of inter-media citations is significantly higher than during routine periods. Furthermore, two main characteristics of a media source make it more likely to be cited: political agenda and accessibility. The authors discuss the factors shaping the phenomenon of inter-media citations and the implications of this practice for conflict coverage. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-09-15T06:59:29Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220953656
Authors:Regina Cazzamatta Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This article investigates whether, in light of the political and economic changes that occurred in the region in the last decades, crises are still a catalyst for foreign reporting on Latin America. The study comprises 3,831 articles related to the 20 Latin American countries published from 2000 to 2014 in the German press: the dailies Süddeutsche Zeitung and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the political magazine Der Spiegel and the alternative newspaper tageszeitung. The author found that more than half of the coverage on the continent depicted some sort of crisis, especially non-violent ones and controversies (36.4%). However, the portrayal of crises is sectorial. The ‘invisible’ Central American states (Honduras, Haiti, Guatemala and El Salvador) and the countries against the Washington Consensus (Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela) exhibit a higher coefficient of crisis intensity. Colombia, despite considerable press attention, has the most crisis-centred reporting due to the conflict with FARC. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-08-21T03:55:12Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220945737
Authors:Aina Fernàndez Aragonès Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. The historical relationship between women and war is largely mediated by their body, used as a symbolic expression of the process of occupation, extermination and subjugation of one people by another through the systematic violation of women and girls. Kurdish women live a triple struggle: against the Daesh, against the national oppression of their people by the different states of the Middle East into which Kurdistan is divided, and last – but not least – against patriarchy. In this fight, their body is their weapon: Daesh fighters are put into panic by them, since if they die at the hands of a woman they will not go to paradise. Commander Arian (2018) directed by Alba Sotorra and Girls’ War (2016) directed by Mylène Sauloy portray the struggle of Kurdish women against Daesh in the area of Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan). This article explores the media frame used in those documentaries to explain the relationship that these women establish with violence, a relationship allegedly denatured but sustained throughout history. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-08-20T02:38:58Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220948554
Authors:Oluseyi Adegbola, Weiwu Zhang Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This study examines the practice of peace journalism by Nigerian journalists and how factors including empathy, reporting efficacy, perceived journalistic roles, and training may promote adherence to peace-oriented reporting. Data were collected using surveys (n = 324) and semi-structured interviews (n = 10). Results suggest that Nigerian journalists subscribe more to the tenets of peace journalism than to war journalism. Findings also demonstrate that, while empathic concern and conflict reporting efficacy can enhance adherence to peace journalism, inadequate training may undermine efforts to promote peace through reporting. Further, perceived journalistic roles appear to exert limited influence on reporting of conflict. Taken together, results shed light on how individual characteristics as well as attributes of the context in which journalists operate can shape their conflict reporting practices. Challenges of conflict reporting in Nigeria and implications for journalists’ enactment of peace journalism best practices are discussed. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-08-13T10:24:22Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220948548
Authors:Daniel Milton Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. Deception has a long history in information warfare. Recent technological advances have increased the ability of militants to utilize deception in propaganda, but this subject has not been the focus of much scholarly attention. This study remedies this shortcoming by conducting a case study of the Islamic State’s use of deception in propaganda, and identifies three types of deception: substantive, source, and spread. Additionally, this article discusses the rationales under which the group used these deceptive practices. In doing so, it provides a new framework for understanding deception that can be useful in future academic work. The study of deception can also help those fighting against these groups by providing them with a research-based understanding of how and when deception is likely to be used, which will allow them to better calibrate counter-messaging efforts. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-08-01T08:37:21Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220945734
Authors:Mathew Charles Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. The study of trauma in journalism tends to assume that trauma exposure (whether it has been a single event or a series of cumulative episodes) is past and finite. However, this article argues that the notion of trauma exposure as temporally located in the past fails to adequately capture the experiences of local, indigenous journalists living and working in contexts of protracted conflict or violence. There is a growing, if contested, acknowledgement that existing conceptualizations of traumatic stress, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), have limited utility in conditions of ongoing violence and danger. In contrast, and based on a participant observation study conducted over three years, this article proposes a spectrum of continuous traumatic stressors and charts the continuous traumatic stress (CTS) of four local reporters in Colombia, living and working in a context of intractable conflict. In this setting, where local journalists have become agents for peace, CTS conjoins the mental wellbeing of individual reporters with their capacity for peace-building. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-07-08T09:36:56Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220939121
Authors:Khaled Al-Shehari, Abdul Gabbar Al-Sharafi Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. In this article, the authors apply a narrative model to examine how narratives about the current crisis in Yemen are constructed on English Wikipedia. Using concepts from various narrative theories, as introduced to the field of translation studies by Baker’s Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account (2006), they analyse an article published on English Wikipedia. The analysis, based on a narrative model designed for this study, focuses on the alleged supporters of the Houthis in the current Yemeni crisis and is applied to the talk pages and history pages associated with the article. The article concludes that, although Wikipedia writers appear free to write and edit without restrictions, they are in fact subject to strict policies and regulations. The transparency of their discussions is a striking feature that controls the quality of the narratives they negotiate on Wikipedia. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-07-03T06:21:13Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220938404
Authors:Serhat Tutkal Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This article examines the dissemination of images of mutilated and humiliated dead bodies of ‘others’ and reactions of Twitter users to these images as dehumanizing practices. When the peace negotiations between the Turkish state and Kurdish PKK failed, numerous images of mutilated and humiliated dead bodies of PKK militants were disseminated by Twitter accounts apparently used by members of the Turkish security forces. The author focuses on two controversial cases from 2015 and immediate social media reactions to those images in order to demonstrate how dehumanization of Kurdish militants played out in the case of Turkey. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-06-03T01:18:49Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220925844
Authors:Juan S. Larrosa-Fuentes Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. Chapo Guzmán was the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. Although he was a well-known criminal, there is a scarcity of first-hand information about his career. This situation raises a question: how did Guzmán become a public figure without having public exposure' This communicative phenomenon is possible because drug cartels have sophisticated propaganda techniques that allow them to challenge the state not only in the military realm but also in the cultural realm. Among other media, these criminal organizations use narcocorridos, a popular music genre, as a medium for propaganda. This article studies, through a narrative analysis of 66 lyrics, how music, as a form of political communication, is used as propaganda. This study found three main narratives in the narcocorridos dedicated to Guzmán: (i) the origins of this drug dealer; (ii) the masculine features that led him to be a global kingpin; and (iii) his genius for corrupting political systems. These lyrics are propaganda because: (a) they spread knowledge in the form of stories about Guzmán; (b) they create a mythology about the kingpin and the narco-world; and (c) they distort reality by picturing Guzmán as a great man and blur reality by suppressing any reference to the drug wars. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-06-03T01:18:32Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220929520
Authors:Andrew C Sparks Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. Since the attacks of September 11 2001, there has been a marked decline in the number of military comedy films in American cinema. Films like Buffalo Soldiers, a film made prior to September 11 but released in 2003, show how this change first started. Whereas, prior to 2001, military comedies were generally accepted and even profitable, after 2001 the genre effectively disappeared and still to this day has not re-emerged despite military non-comedy films making a clear resurgence after 2008. In this article, the author explores how and why military comedies have declined over time by making comparisons of how popular both military comedy and non-comedy films were in prior periods and today. The purpose of this is to show how the decline of military comedies since 2001 is a symptom of a greater political trend within American political development, specifically the civil–military divide. As this divide has grown in the post-military draft period in the United States, an event like September 11 seems to have ruptured the general acceptability of laughing at the military, which remains improper in cinema to this day. Finally, he examines some of the political consequences of this lack of laughter at the military within the greater political and film studies literature, which include growing tacit support for the military and how the narratives within some of these films leave little room for American civilians to comedically view the military that defends them. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-05-27T06:52:30Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220922278
Authors:Michael Tasseron, Brendan T Lawson Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This article analyses the way statistics were used by select British and South African news outlets in the coverage of the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza. Taking asymmetrical warfare as their primary theoretical framework, we used a content analysis and interviews with journalists to uncover specific patterns and imbalances in the coverage. Within the text of the articles, we observed the way numbers served to legitimize Israeli attacks and de-legitimize attacks from Gaza. This can partially be explained by aspects of news production. Journalists described Israeli public relations as highly attuned to news production practices on the conflict. Taken as a whole, we argue that the use of numbers in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict can be conceptualized within an asymmetrical information context. In doing so, we emphasize the need to examine text as well as production when researching this war and other conflicts. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-05-27T06:51:50Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220917692
Authors:Michal Hatuel-Radoshitzky, Moran Yarchi Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This article addresses media coverage of soft-power threats, which are typical in modern wars between state and non-state actors. In doing so, the authors depart from the vast literature on the ‘rally ’round the flag’ phenomenon coined in relation to conventional military threats. They base their case study on the interplay between Israel and the global Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) civil society movement that utilizes soft-power tactics with the aim of isolating Israel internationally. To assess the way the Israeli media relate to BDS, determine the absence or existence of a ‘rally ’round the flag’ phenomenon vis-à-vis BDS, and assess coverage characteristics, the authors conducted a qualitative and quantitative analysis of (N = 209) articles covering BDS in the Israeli media over the course of three years (2015−2018). Their findings suggest that coverage of the soft threat follows similar patterns to those coined on conventional military threats. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-05-25T06:25:06Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220917419
Authors:Regina (Pien) van der Hoeven, Bernadette Kester Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. Although, in recent years, considerable research has been done on the hazardous experiences of Anglo-Saxon war journalists, Dutch war journalists have never been the focus of academic attention. The authors thought the experiences of the Dutch might put war journalism in a new light and so they conducted a series of in-depth interviews with 12 Dutch war journalists. In this article, they address two main research questions: what are war journalists’ motives for practising this dangerous occupation and how do they perceive their professional role' The authors compared their findings to previous research on Anglo-Saxon war journalists and on Dutch journalism students and journalists. The most striking conclusion is that, compared to their Anglo-Saxon colleagues, Dutch war journalists are reluctant to present their motivation and work in moral dimensions too eagerly. Instead, all the interviewees frankly acknowledge that they are excited by the experience of war or at least seeking adventure. They equally admit to having chosen the profession partly because of career opportunities. However, this rational attitude of Dutch war journalists does not deter them from moral objectives. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-05-11T07:52:50Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220917411
Authors:Linda de Veen, Richard Thomas Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. Similar to other nations, terrorism is a compelling preoccupation in the Netherlands. One issue in the public debate concerning news coverage is whether it fairly reports the perpetrators’ racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds. This article asks whether there is disproportionate attention (coverage bias), selection (gatekeeping bias) and presentation (statement bias) in various Dutch newspapers between 2015 and 2017. Using content analysis, the authors find all three types of bias present, albeit to different degrees. We propose that Critical Race Theory (CRT) usefully explains how bias is often unintentional and that journalistic outcomes are the consequence of unconsciously imprinted ideas about what constitutes a ‘terrorist’, facilitated and amplified by institutionalized media practices and wider societal power relations. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-03-18T01:02:21Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220909407
Authors:Dennis Lichtenstein, Katharina Koerth Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. In a complex information environment, the Ukraine crisis became a litmus test for the German government’s capacity to legitimate its international crisis management in Ukraine and in confrontations with Russia. This study investigates crisis coverage in the pluralized German television system and how it is shaped by trends of infotainment and globalization. It asks how different TV formats framed the Ukraine crisis and challenged or approved governmental crisis policy. Comparing the framing of the Ukraine crisis between March 2014 and December 2015 in German government communication, public service newscast Tagesschau, Russian foreign broadcaster’s newscast Der Fehlende Part (RT Deutsch) and seven infotainment programs (talk shows and satirical shows), the findings reveal essential limitations for the indexing thesis. All TV formats substantially differed in their depiction of the crisis according to their respective format conventions. Whereas public service news mainly reflected governmental frames, the foreign and infotainment formats challenged the legitimacy of German crisis policy. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-03-07T10:51:17Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220909977
Authors:Todd Copeland Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. During the course of the First World War, the British presence in Belgium resulted in what one can describe as a figurative colonization of Flanders, an intensely defended region in which the British Empire suffered immense casualties. This process of figuratively recreating Flanders into British soil through the employment of possessive tropes took place in propaganda and literary works alike, with such terms as acquisitive equation and idealized interventions echoing those employed in the rhetoric of the British Empire during earlier eras in its imperial history. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-02-22T10:04:57Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220902486
Authors:Mykola Makhortykh, Mariella Bastian Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. The use of algorithmically tailored individual news feeds is increasingly viewed as an important strategy for accommodating consumers’ information needs by legacy media. However, growing personalization of news distribution also raises normative concerns about the societal function of legacy media, in particular when dealing with personalization of traumatic and polarizing content. To extend the discussion of these concerns beyond the current focus on the role of news personalization in Western democracies, this article offers a conceptual assessment of perspectives for adopting personalization for conflict coverage in Ukraine and Russia, where media systems enjoy a lesser degree of press freedom. Using the coverage of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine as a case study, the article offers a conceptual framework for assessing the impact of personalization on the distribution of conflict-related news in a non-Western context. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-02-19T10:42:01Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220906254
Authors:Innocent Chiluwa, Isioma M Chiluwa Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This corpus-based discourse study briefly reviews the activities of Boko Haram and the conflict between the nomadic herdsmen and sedentary agrarian farmers of north-central and southern Nigeria. But the study focuses on the representations of the main actors in the conflict and the conflict itself in the Western media and the Nigerian press, and examines the ideological implications of these representations as well as the possible consequences of some particular evaluations of the conflicts for peace and security in Nigeria. The article’s findings show that the constructions of the conflict and the main actors in the Nigerian press are highly sensational, divisive and dangerous. While the foreign press appears much more objective and often constructs the conflict as ‘deadlier than Boko Haram’, the reports still appear to minimize the seriousness of the conflict and construct the actions of the main actors from a perspective that would appeal only to foreign audiences. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-02-08T07:27:54Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220902490
Authors:Mohammad R Kalantari Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This article explains why Iran was unsuccessful in its efforts to persuade Shiʿi Iraqis to support Iran during the critical early years of the Iran–Iraq war. Analysis of Iranian and Iraqi framing communicated to that target population shows Iran failed due to both structural and cultural factors. Its media strategy lacked reach and variety and it misunderstood the cultural identity of Shiʿi Iraqis. The author makes use of original archive material of radio transcripts from 1981–1983 as well as other primary sources and historical accounts. The research makes an original theoretical contribution by applying media contest theory to a military confrontation between two sovereign states, rather than between a state ‘authority’ facing a non-state ‘challenger’. The findings have implications for considering how Iran today may communicate more effectively beyond its borders through regional media strategies and thus the viability of a mediatized Shiʿism. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-01-31T08:57:05Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635220902192
Authors:Nick Caddick, Linda Cooper, Lauren Godier-McBard, Matt Fossey Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. In this article, we examine the representational practices of British newspapers in relation to forms of military injury. Using critical discourse analysis, we studied the reporting of injuries sustained by military personnel during the height of the UK’s war in Afghanistan in 2009 – and a comparison period five years later – and concluded that representations of injured personnel differed substantially between articles reporting on ‘combat’ and ‘non-combat’ injuries. We argue that the different reporting frames work to construct a moral separation of injuries into ‘heroic’ (combat) and ‘non-heroic’ (non-combat) forms. The consequences of this hierarchization of injury, we suggest, include the reification of ‘combat’ as an idealized form of masculine violence, the privileging of some soldiers and veterans over others as exemplars of national heroism, and elision of the day-to-day realities of military injury from public consciousness. Findings are discussed in relation to broader consequences for understanding heroism and the military. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-01-13T10:14:15Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635219899110
Authors:Jonas Osmann, Jeffrey Dvorkin, Yoel Inbar, Elizabeth Page-Gould, Anthony Feinstein Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. This article presents a mapping review of the available literature on the emotional well-being of journalists exposed to traumatic events. The review consists of three parts: (a) a summary of the results of trauma-related literature; (b) identification of the limitations of studies to date; and (c) suggestions for future research. The overview of the reviewed studies is provided as a table. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-01-07T07:27:21Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635219895998
Authors:Aaron M Hoffman, Dwaine HA Jengelley Abstract: Media, War & Conflict, Ahead of Print. Existing research suggests that journalists who work at newspapers that emphasize profitability increase the negativity of their terrorism reporting in response to declining revenues. Many journalists, however, dispute the connection between the sale of news and the coverage of news. The authors address this debate using an original panel dataset of articles about terrorism between 1997 and 2014, published by 20 of the top circulating newspapers in the United States. The results show that the negativity of coverage is influenced by the profit orientations of newspaper owners rather than the success that news organizations have in selling the news. The deadliness of terrorist attacks, the post-9/11 media environment, and public distrust of the news media also influence the tone of terrorism coverage. Citation: Media, War & Conflict PubDate: 2020-01-06T09:41:31Z DOI: 10.1177/1750635219896001
Hybrid journal (It can contain Open Access articles)
