| Relying on interviewing, I conceptualize that U.S. Mediated Policy, Iranian Mediated Policy, and Saudi Mediated Policy are three latent constructs in a structural model. Saliences of two frames, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, in the websites of the U.S. Voice of America (VOA), the Iranian Tehran Times, and the Saudi Asharq Al-Awsat are used as continuous criteria to measure variances in these latent constructs, respectively. The model embraces a fourth latent variable, Iraqi Independent Media. Variance in this construct is measured on the same continuous criteria but relying on the online coverage of the Iraqi independent news agency, Aswat al-Iraq. I hypothesize that the variables U.S. Mediated Policy, Iranian Mediated Policy, and Saudi Mediated Policy interact through covariance, and that each of them exerts direct causal effect on the variable Iraqi Independent Media. The analysis shows: (1) There are significant American, Iranian, and Saudi mediated political projects to Iraq. (2) There is U.S. dilemma that the United States deals simultaneously with two competing regional projects in Iraq, the Saudi and the Iranian. (3) Due to the funding crisis after 2003, coverage of Iraq in the Iraqi independent media follows mediated policies through foreign governments' media. |
