FRAMED: HOW COLIN POWELL'S U.N.SPEECH ON IRAQ SET THE NEWS AGENDA FOR AMERICAN AND BRITISH TELEVISON NEWS

Abstract

Numerous scholars and press critics have asserted that American news coverage of the run-up to the Iraq war was less skeptical than British coverage. This thesis explores the validity of that claim in the television news coverage of one key event: Colin Powell's February 5, 2003 address to the United Nations in which he made the case for war. How effective was the Bush administration in using Powell's presentation to set the news agenda in America and Great Britain? Contrary to expectations, a qualitative content analysis found British network ITV framed the event in much the same way as did American networks ABC, CBS, and NBC.