American Media Coverage of War, Conflict and Violence in Western vs "non-Western" Countries

Singh, Shubhashika

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

American Media Coverage of War, Conflict and Violence in Western vs "non-Western" Countries Public Deposited

Analytics

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Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/j098zc48v

Abstract

Media has the power to connect the stories and experiences of people around the world. For many, it serves as their first point of reference on global events and issues. Growing up in a household where both of my parents worked in the news and media industry, I gravitated towards the field at an early age. Although I was young, I have memories of my mom traveling to rural areas of Nepal as she reported on the on-going civil war in the country. I vividly remember watching Christianne Ammanpour’s coverage of the war in the Middle East in the early 2000’s. Learning about the fundamental values of war reporting has allowed me to understand the importance and sacrifice of journalists and war correspondents. After moving to the United States, I quickly realized that the way the American media portrays conflict, violence, and war in the global south in comparison to the global north differs. I realized how the news media and its coverage plays a large role in how the public perceives wars, conflicts, and violence abroad. Most importantly, it impacts the way we perceive these countries and its people in general. The way that media reports on communities, people, and cultural identities impacts the way the rest of the world perceives them. In this research, I will refer to the predominantly White, European countries as “Western” countries and predominantly non-White, Middle Eastern/South Asian countries as “non-Western”. The term “non-Western” is an American constructed term that essentially lumps countries in the Middle East, Central and South Asia together. The term “non-Western” is adequate for this thesis because the American media usually groups countries in these regions together. Aditionally, it also fails to differentiate between Muslim-majority, South Asian countries and Arab countries. I will be analyzing if there is bias in the way in which the American media covers wars in Western countries in comparison to “non-Western” countries. Specifically, I will conduct a case study by comparing two specific conflicts, one based in a Western country and one in a “non-Western” country. The conflict I chose to study in the Western country is the ongoing war in Ukraine and the conflict I chose for the “non-Western” country is the war in Afghanistan. Although there has not been a lot of literature on specifically the coverage of Ukraine because it is a recent and on-going conflict, there are enough articles and images that I can examine to support my hypothesis. I argue that there is evidence for apparent bias which is present in the coverage of “non-Western” countries.

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