This dissertation examines the relations between the local base of the anti-Iraq War movement and the local press in the UK. It is, as such, a study of the interactions between local newsworkers and local activists, as well as a Content Analysis study of how the Iraq crisis, and particularly opposition to military action, was reported on in the pages of the local press. Key questions to be addressed include how local journalists assessed the legitimacy of the antiwar movement; how, and the reasons why, opponents of the war sought local press coverage, and with what consequences (if any) their interactions with the media may have had for the movement; and how the local press handled the almost uniquely controversial nature of the Iraq crisis in its reporting. Most previous research on the Iraq crisis has focused on the national media local media has hitherto been absent from the research agenda. Likewise, the majority of research on social movements has usually focused on the national leaderships of those movements again the local dimension of social movements has rarely been studied. In these ways it is hoped that the study makes a unique contribution to research into both the reporting of the Iraq crisis, and to the study of the interactions between social movements and the media.

This thesis considers the transformation of Iranian-Israeli ties following the 1979 Iranian Revolution from a Western-allied relationship to a covert, scandalous relationship, specifically in the context of the Iran-Iraq War. I also look at the Iranian and Israeli narratives and compare the religious, historical, ideological and psycho-political underpinnings that reveal significant similarities between these two superficially diametrically opposed states, and ultimately shaped the complex and misunderstood relationship between the two countries. / text

According to the United States Department of Defense (DOD), as of 2013 there were over 12,000 DOD contractors supporting the U.S. mission in Iraq (DASD, 2013). This thesis explores the laws and legal systems that operate to keep contractors, and the companies that employ them, resistant to legal oversight. I ground my analysis in the 2007 Nisour Square massacre, exploring how every attempt to prosecute those responsible was doomed due to Blackwater’s legal position of being American-headquartered, hired by the State Department, privately owned, and operating in Iraq. I conclude that the legal indeterminacy of the US deployed security contractor normalizes violence towards Iraqi civilians while simultaneously downloading the risk and responsibility associated with the US war efforts onto the shoulders of individual contractors. Moreover, I suggest that this legal indeterminacy is of particular interest to geographers as it arises, in part, out of overlapping legal systems, jurisdictions, and authorities.

According to the United States Department of Defense (DOD), as of 2013 there were over 12,000 DOD contractors supporting the U.S. mission in Iraq (DASD, 2013). This thesis explores the laws and legal systems that operate to keep contractors, and the companies that employ them, resistant to legal oversight. I ground my analysis in the 2007 Nisour Square massacre, exploring how every attempt to prosecute those responsible was doomed due to Blackwater’s legal position of being American-headquartered, hired by the State Department, privately owned, and operating in Iraq. I conclude that the legal indeterminacy of the US deployed security contractor normalizes violence towards Iraqi civilians while simultaneously downloading the risk and responsibility associated with the US war efforts onto the shoulders of individual contractors. Moreover, I suggest that this legal indeterminacy is of particular interest to geographers as it arises, in part, out of overlapping legal systems, jurisdictions, and authorities.

The New Zealand news media have covered Iraq War II extensively, and from different perspectives, shaped by reporting restrictions, public opinion and editorial policies of the media organisations. This thesis studies New Zealand's three largest daily newspapers' coverage during the invasion phase of the war exploring their reliance on global news agencies such as Reuters, AFP and AP and on elite British and US newspapers. The research also aims to explore the newspapers' dependence on global news agencies and other content providers and the extent of US and Coalition domination of the news agenda. Global news media, including mainstream news agencies which mostly rely on government and military officials for information on military conflicts such as Iraq War II, become channels for propaganda and facilitate elite sources to set the agenda for national and global audiences. A content analysis of the three daily newspapers - The New Zealand Herald, The Dominion Post and The Press - reveals that the war coverage in New Zealand was framed by international news agencies, US and UK newspapers. And their reliance on US and Coalition official sources in the news construction meant that they became vehicles for propaganda. The mainstream New Zealand newspapers' coverage of Iraq War II is examined through the contexts of globalisation, news flows, media-source relations, news management and propaganda as these are the issues that have shaped the war journalism discourse in New Zealand. As there have not been many studies in New Zealand of news media coverage of wars, this research is an opportunity for studying mainstream newspapers of a country that is not a direct participant in the war. It gives the opportunity to compare reporting by newspapers in a country not directly involved in Iraq War II with that of countries that are directly involved. What emerges from this study is that the level of involvement in a war is no longer the most important factor in determining the direction of news media coverage. News values, globalisation, economic interdependence, news flows and propaganda are all highly significant factors affecting coverage. This thesis shows that the US military and government sources dominated the news agenda through various media management strategies. The findings of this research also demonstrate the dominance of the global news agencies and US and UK publications as main content providers in the war coverage. The implication of this is that the few Western media outlets are able to set the news agenda for news retailers such as New Zealand newspapers, and their readers.

Contemporary researches on news coverage of Persian Gulf Wars have shown many controversial results in examining how U.S. newspapers covered war events during the wartime. This study examined the coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom by the newspapers of the United States, Britain, and Saudi Arabia.Three prominent newspapers, the New York Times, the Times of London and Arab News, were selected for content analysis of their coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom between March 20 and May 1, 2003. The percentage breakdown of positive, negative and neutral paragraphs coded from composite two weeks of publications by all three newspapers was studied.The goal of the study was to determine if the coverage of the 2003 Iraq war by the New York Times and the Times of London were more favorable than that Arab News. The Arab News was used as a basis for comparison of American and British newspapers for this study.The results of the study showed that the three newspapers covered the Operation of Iraqi Freedom in a neutral manner.Ball State UniversityMuncie, IN 47306However, the Times of London treated the Iraq war coverage with more positive news rather than the New York Times and Arab News did, respectively. On the other hand, Arab News appeared to have devoted the lowest favorable news stories after the Times of London. / Department of Journalism

Media framing research has examined how news stories are fashioned, and how audiences are affected by the shaping of news stories. Measuring for media frames, though, has varied in its definitions and measurement instruments.The present study applied attribution theory to the study of media framing in order to establish a reliable way to measure for frames of responsibility in The New York Times' coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. A content analysis was conducted to determine what type of attributions the newspaper's sources used in the coverage.The findings suggest that The New York Times' coverage overwhelmingly blamed Iraq for the war and maintained a dominant frame of responsibility. Furthermore, support was found for the assertion that attribution theory applied to media framing research would create a meta-theory approach, thereby creating a consistent way to measure and identify frames of responsibility.Ball State UniversityMuncie, IN 47306 / Department of Journalism

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-109). / vi, 109 leaves, bound col. ill., col. map 29 cm

Thesis (LL. M.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Jutta Brunnee.

Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2007. / Thesis Advisor(s): Looney, Robert. "December 2007." AD-A475 762. Description based on title screen as viewed on January 18, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-76). Also available via the World Wide Web.