The Comparative Study Of Television Coverage Of The Iraq War In China And The UK

In the Iraq War, media from different countries covered it from different stances and perspectives. To get a better understanding of the war coverage in different countries, this dissertation compares the television coverage of the Iraq War in China and the UK to explore how the media coverage of war was influenced by their media systems and journalistic norms.The content analysis is used to compare the television news coverage of the Iraq War in China and the UK. It focuses on two television news programmes - CCTV1 Xinwen Lianbo in China and BBC1 Ten O'clock News in the UK. My study adopted quantitative content analysis to provide a systematic overview of a number of news items. This overview makes a comparative and cross-cultural perspective possible through quantifying and comparing the reporting of specific topics, events and people in the television news coverage between the two countries. Then, the qualitative content analysis was employed as a way of focusing on analysing the language used to describe terms (such as Allied Troops, people fighting against the Allied Troops, sectarian violence and the Iraqi government), explanations given for the events, and the tone of story, in order to illustrate the background, motive and deep meaning of the news text.The study showed that there were differences in the amount of war coverage, war themes, use of sources and the tone employed in the Iraq War coverage. The differences found between the Chinese and British media coverage of the Iraq War can be explained by the media systems framework. The news topic and sources preference of the Chinese and British media attacked their claims to adhere to the journalistic norm of objectivity and impartiality. However, Chinese media had covered the Iraq War in a neutral and balance way.