Images of Iraq war in Ugandan Newspapers : A comparative study of the coverage of Iraq war in The New Vision and The Monitor newspapers from February 4, to March 31, 2003

Abstract

I conducted an empirical study of The New Vision and The Monitor newspaper coverage of the Iraq War 2003 with a view of establishing the ways the two newspapers dealt with and countered the perceived globalisation of American influence in the global coverage of the war. The period of study was from February 4, 2003, to March 31, 2003. The study was conducted in a comparative manner to see if there was a difference in the coverage by the two newspapers given their different modes of ownership, the former by government and the latter privately. However the broader goal was to ascertain the extent to which the coverage conformed to the US version and interpretation of the conflict. The empirical data consisted of a total 1311 items published by both papers during the period of my study. A combination of quantitative and qualitative content analysis together with interviews was carried in order to establish both the quantitative and qualitative differences and themes of some of these texts. The findings indicate that the two newspapers managed to provide a critique to the manner in which the war was conducted and questioned its justifications. This was notable in the editorials and commentaries. It was found that all the editorials which were published during our period of study were critical of both the US led coalition and the war itself, while over 80 percent of the commentaries too were critical of the US and the war. However, in the hard news and photograph section of the findings, it was found that the discourse of the framing was overwhelmingly informed by US sources due to the fact that the two newspapers relied on Western dominated news agencies for their news.