How the medias framing of war has changed:

Three conflicts

www.daviddicke.com www.nbcnews.com www.reuters.com

Framing Theory
Analyzing Frames:

Studies what information is left out or

promoted

Seeks to understand the ways media present

a problem to the public

Looks at how a story guides the audience

Columbia.edu
World War II framing the Just War
Background

WW II was a just war

Clearly defined battle fronts
An enemy we could see
Our enemy hit us first

Self Censorship over Government control

Franklin Roosevelt creates Office of Censorship
Byron Price, of the Associated Press, named as director
The Office creates and modifies the Code of Wartime Practices
World War II framing the Just War
Study 1: Suppressing Atrocities

The Conflict
Stories of U.S. soldiers committing atrocities
The conflict: commitment to truth vs. the soldier-
hero message

Resolving the conflict:

Office of Censorship felt that it was the
militarys job to monitor its troops

Conclusion:
Self censored press didnt publish most stories tomatobubble.com
Generally kept the hero soldier frame in tact
World War II framing the Just War
Study 2: From the Foxhole

Qualitative analysis of two WW II correspondents:

Ernie Pyle travel writer turned wartime journalist

Pyle self censored
Pyle framed the Japanese I wanted a mental
bath after looking at them
Neither gave any context to enemy ideologies

Bill Mauldin infantryman, cartoonist

Tank-net.com
Portrayed his soldiers as human beings
Had fans in the highest ranks
Never directly depicted death
World War II framing the Just War
Study 3: The Newsreel

Making the war grand:

Power of the big screen
Background music frames the good and bad guys
Newsreels took longer to produce
Didnt really show news
Focused on the dramatic to become interesting
Romano Archives
Viewers had to travel to the theater framed
soldiers as someone else
Big, booming voice contextualized actions with the
greater good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp6uN6Kpe7c
Changing the frame: Vietnam
Characteristics of Vietnam

No attack on American soil

Enemy not front and center
Battle lines not as easy to mark as in WW II
Television overtook newspapers as the predominant source for news

Masco American history

Changing the frame: Vietnam
Study 1: Television and Vietnam

Television played an important role but not how we think:

Broadcast news reports of violence not prevalent
Soldiers were not portrayed as monsters
Television reports were generally positive

So, if TV reports were important and they didnt place the war in a negative
frame, how did it happen?
Changing the frame: Vietnam
Study 1: Television and Vietnam

Its the medium, not the message!

TVs in the living room, not the theater

Soldiers are now 3 inches tall, not giants
Now in the living room, not at theaters
No booming voice putting context on the greater good

Smaller cameras mean more footage

Cameras caught more of the mundane life of a soldier
Soldiering a regular job, not a heroic pursuit
complaints about the boss
commutes
Soldiers were neighborhood kids, not mythical heroes
Changing the frame: Vietnam
Study 1: Television and Vietnam

Single camera format blurs the lines between stories

Expensive satellite transmissions guide story topics

Only breaking news sent via satellite transmission
Most stories focused on daily drudgery of a soldier

Conclusion: Teachrock.org
Mythical barriers between soldiers and viewers broken
down
Soldiers were now us, just in a different country
When viewers saw violence or an atrocity, it was
committed by one of them, a neighbor, not an action
figure
Changing the frame: Vietnam
Study 2: Photos frame the war

Can photos set the frame?

Study looks for correlation between Gallup Pole and magazine photos

The method:
Gathered 286 war related photos from Time, life, and Newsweek
Photos originally printed week before or week of Gallup Pole
Each photo evaluated for - scene, subject, portrayal and perspective

Found three phases of war support and a change in the photos through each
Changing the frame: Vietnam
Study 2: Photos frame the war

Phase 1: Early war support

Subjects were U.S. forces and equipment
little actual footage of combat
Balance of close-up, normal and distant views Wikipedia

Phase 2: Divided support

Mostly combat / life threatening photos
Greater focus on distant views than close ups

Phase 3:
More allied, less U.S. troop pics
The Atlantic
Study did show distinct changes in photos as opinion
shifted
Changing the frame: Vietnam
Study 3: A more balanced view of Vietnam War
reporting

Was war reporting in Vietnam balanced?

Study suggests that reporters provided more balanced

reporting that sometimes suggested

Example: Cam Ne
Morley Safer, of CBS News, reported from the
village, showing soldiers burning huts Peabody Awards
U.S. Administration was furious
Scholars sometimes point to this as an example
of sensationalist reporting
Changing the frame: Vietnam
Study 3: A more balanced view of Vietnam War
reporting

But Safers other reports showed something different:

Marines offering shelter
Navy doctors aiding villagers
Safers dispatches blamed the war, not the GIs

Conclusion:
http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/e
While not the simplistic WW II view of the hero soldier, xhibits/blackhistorymonth/
news reports didnt always place a frightening frame
around the U.S. troops
Framing Iraq II
Characteristics

Enemy attack on U.S. soil loosely connected

Enemy easy to find, at first
Early battle lines turned more chaotic
Internet catching up with TV as news source

Wikimedia.org
Framing Iraq II
Study 1: The theme of Time covers

The power Times cover photo

Time one of the most popular magazines of the time
Cover photos seen by people who dont even read Time

Research found four frames:

Frame 1: The Sanitized War

Destruction was far off, not personal Time
No casualties, only symbols
The text was more critical than the images used words
like hell and chaos
Framing Iraq II
Study 1: The theme of Time covers

Frame 2: Against the Powers that Be

Cartoonish vision of W as Uncle Sam
Bush shown as cowboy, loaner
Photos generally showed the decision makers of
Time
the war as white men

Frame 3: The American soldier in a time of war

Soldiers more racially diverse
Photos showed sympathy for the soldier
The soldier was separated from the president
Failure in the field was blamed on improper
equipment, not the soldier
Time
Framing Iraq II
Study 1: The theme of Time covers

Frame 4: The Other of the war, or us versus them

11 covers depicted some version of someone

on the other end of the conflict
One cover showed Saddam Husain with a big
red X over his face
Text such as We Got Him! promoted
nationalism Typical text included words like
they, us, and we
Time
Framing Iraq II
Study 2: Casualty framing and public opinion

Framing the war in terms of casualties

Reversing protocal:
Media and military looks to avoid Five Oclock follies
Military decides to release casualty rates during Iraq II
Possibly as a way to bolster war support

Two reasons why casualty reports might be given

Success in unconventional wars are difficult to measure (no
battle lines etc.)
Offering an enemy to ally casualty ratio puts context on losses

Two experiments
Framing Iraq II
Study 2: Casualty framing and public opinion

Experiment 1:
Simple survey about success or failure of a mission
Casualty information was provided directly or as a ratio
Most said operation was a success when reports given as a ratio
e.g. 25 U.S. killed vs. 200 Iraqis

Experiment 2:
Participants were given a New York Times article about a battle in Iraq
Articles were identical except for the framing a casualty report
e.g. ratio, used insurgent instead of Iraqi

Result: Casualty ratios were successful in positively framing a battle

Framing Iraq II
Study 3: Framing the demonstration

How did the press frame pro and anti war demonstrations

Method:
Created list of words from Pro and Anti war websites
Searched for those words in reports of protests Nedhepburn.tum
across the U.S. bler.com
Results:
Press used words matching the demonstrators frame
Anti-war frames were used to a much higher degree
Reporters placed anti-war protesters in a negative
frame
Occupyafrica.wordpress.com
Study Conclusions
The media actively frames war and those that fight
it

The nature of technology effects the frames

Framing of the soldier shifted from heroic to

sympathetic

Soldiers have been removed from the frame of the

overall war

Questions? www.dkosara.wordpress.com