This study's primary focus is to determine if the White House press corps acted more deferential to President Bush and his agenda after September 11, 2001, and if so, to see how long the period of decreased adversarial relations lasted. This purpose is accomplished through a content analysis of 37 White House press briefings, conducted by then White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, examining press-briefing questions three months before, on, directly following, and three months after September 11 according to four dimensions of adversarial relations: initiative, directness, assertiveness, and hostility. Ten question design features comprise the criteria to measure each dimension, and ultimately, to measure the degree to which the press acted more deferential or adversarial toward Fleischer after the September 11 attacks.
Overall, the study's results show the White House press corps asked similar questions before and after September 11. Though deferent questions soared to the sample's highest levels on September 11, the press corps not only maintained its pre-September deferential/ adversarial relations with Fleischer in the weeks following September 11, but it became even more adversarial. By December 2001, deference increased and adversarial relations decreased, but not by more than 10 percent of what they were before September 11. This group of press members, in touch with the highest-ranking political officials and newsmakers, initiated more direct, assertive, and hostile questions following the momentous domestic shakeup of September 11, 2001.
Contrary to many reports, this study found the press to be more aggressive than normal in their questioning in the two-three weeks following the attacks. This information begs bigger questions, which may serve for continuing areas of study: If members of the White House Press Corps were asking more adversarial questions following September 11, why didn't their increased adversarial tone make it into the headlines of national newspapers, broadcasts, and magazines? Is there a correlation between questions the media ask sources and what gets into the news? Does the press question's agenda have any bearing on the news agenda?
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-05282004-132928 |
| Date | 01 June 2004 |
| Creators | Bannerman, Jodi Kathleen |
| Contributors | Ralph Izard, John Hamilton, Tim Cook |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-05282004-132928/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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