J-School Students Critique Iraq Coverage

By: Mariel Betancourt-Beil While U.S. media earn top marks for their coverage of some subjects related to the Iraq crisis, they are failing other assignments, a group of 27 students at Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism recently concluded.

For a mid-term assignment, each student in Scripps Howard Visiting Professional Bradley K. Martin's foreign correspondence class chose a major newspaper, wire service, TV network, or radio station to monitor, and critiqued its coverage of the possible war against Iraq in an essay.

Though the results of their studies aren't scientific, the students -- mostly seniors and graduate students -- did reveal several trends worth noting.

The daily newspapers studied throughout January and early February engaged in a hearty debate regarding the possibility of war and boldly criticized government policy.

Of the five national dailies examined in this year's Ohio University study, The Wall Street Journal was the only one seen as showing an obvious pro-war stance on its editorial pages. In several editorials, the paper urged Bush to "put the pedal to the metal." Kathleen Gibson, who monitored the Journal, said, "Tellingly, no real condemnation of the upcoming war or mention of the human rights consequences for such action was found anywhere."

Students praised those national newspapers that printed articles regarding the effects of a possible war on not only the American people but also the citizens of Middle Eastern countries. However, students wanted still more coverage of these issues, and agreed with those who accuse journalists of having a short memory.

A Los Angeles Times reader "was given very little historical perspective and was hardly ever reminded of the ugly past," Aida Aidakyeva wrote, adding that the short memory of editors and reporters "allowed many to forget how the United States was friends with [Saddam] Hussein and how it shared its biological and chemical weapons programs."

Students studying nine large regional dailies complained about the missing historical perspective as well. They noted that some newspapers relied too heavily on wire services and stories that simply outlined Washington policy regarding the possible war.

For example, Rae Ann Wilson's review of the Chicago Tribune left her with unanswered questions: "Why are we going to war? Do we want oil or to gain more power in the Middle East? Is Bush just finishing off a family project with Powell and if so, is he making a mistake? What does the rest of the world really think" Wilson said that answers to these questions "will not be found at a press briefing, that much is for sure."

Rucha Chitnis, an Indian graduate student who monitored The Boston Globe, wrote that the paper provided balanced coverage of pro- and anti-war voices but lacked information about "the internal political factions, warring tribes and communities within Iraq. ... I was also left wondering what the common man or woman in Iraq thought about the impending war," Chitnis said. "What are the thoughts of Iraqi people who have migrated to nearby areas?"

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution fared well with its 11 foreign correspondents, according to Stephanie V. Siek. One article profiled Iraq's aging water system in depth, and the newspaper also found ways to localize coverage of the effects of the war. "Using reliable and strong wire copy to convey the basic facts and important events, it saves its limited staff resources to convey context and color that the wire services may not provide," Siek said.

Other newspapers cited for balanced, insightful coverage include the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, which supplemented coverage by two foreign correspondents with news analysis, and The Sun of Baltimore.

On the other hand, at The Christian Science Monitor of Boston, an anti-war stance revealed itself "from the front page to the opinion page," said Fredric A. Rosemeyer Jr. At the Los Angeles Times, Americans were "presented as doubtful and afraid of the war," wrote Aidakyeva. She added, "People 'from the street' who supported the war were never interviewed."

The Philadelphia Inquirer offered most of its coverage from Washington and New York, according to David Laber. While Laber did find datelines from Iraq and Turkey, he found more stories filed from Seoul, South Korea. This focus was unusual, as most national and regional newspapers seemed to sacrifice coverage of North Korea and other foreign issues in favor of coverage of Iraq.

"Newspapers like The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch are following Bush's lead," Jamie Ciavarra added. "By placing stories about North Korea on secondary pages, the Dispatch is proposing that this conflict is not as newsworthy or important as the conflict with Iraq."

The foreign correspondence class is one of the few of its kind to also offer select students the opportunity to work abroad for 10 weeks, through the John R. Wilhelm Foreign Correspondence program.