Media Representations of the Gulf War: What Transpired on the Battlefront?

master's thesis

• Title (croatian): Prikaz Zaljevskog rata u medijima
• Author: Katarina Žigić
• Mentor: Jelena Šesnić (mentor)
• Committee member: Sven Cvek (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Hrvoje Tutek (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2023-02-28, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract

The media are always expected to be the objective mediators between the events they are reporting and the public. This thesis explores situations when the media willingly or unwillingly discarded the role of critical and objective bystanders and became the extension of the conflict. The main focus of this thesis is The Gulf War (1990-1991), nicknamed the Video Game War due to daily broadcast of images from Iraq.
The paper presents work of Sir William Knightley, Ernest Hemingway and Michael Herr in respect to war correspondence. Building on that experience, the paper examines conflicts which brought forth new journalistic practices in war reportage. The American Civil War saw the event of organized journalism and censorship in reporting and the Vietnam War witnessed an unprecedented freedom of press that arguably influenced the outcome of the war. These events led to the changes imposed on media freedom in the Gulf War. The US developed a new strategy of ‘pools’ to avoid the ‘Vietnam syndrome’ and we outline the influence that it has had on news reporting and the issues it has created. In addition, this paper focuses on reporting conventions and technological advances in relation to war correspondence. Television not only covered the Gulf War, it became an integral part of the conflict – from the opening moments of the war, with live telephone coverage of the bombing of Baghdad, to the final liberation of Kuwait. These events also impacted the change of norms and values in journalistic practice and shaped the way war journalism is practiced and perceived today. Having all this in mind, the paper attempts to answer the question: In which way has the Gulf War of 1991 impacted journalistic practice in times of war?

• Keywords: war correspondence; war correspondent; The Gulf War; media pools; technology
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:572133
• Study programme: Title: English Language and Literature (double major); specializations in: Linguistics, Literature and Culture, Translation; Course: Linguistics; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti (magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2023-02-28 11:05:08