British Quality Newspaper Reported Research, The Iraq War In 2003

War has always been a focal point for the media, coupled with the difference between war and other news events (those concerned with the national interest, the government's official line etc), so the coverage of war is a major test for the fairness and objectivity of journalism. At the beginning of the new century, the war in Iraq, which began in 2003, once again attracted the media's attention. Issues such as the causes and justification of this war, with such very different viewpoints, have led to quite different reports from the media of the different nations. As for the war itself, should the media obey the rules of their profession (such as objectivity and fairness) or should they be the mouthpiece of their government, a point which focuses on the special relationship between the media and the government in war time. This dissertation is based on three media theories (the propaganda model theory; the indexing hypothesis theory; the Orientalism theory) and proposes that the media, as a mouthpiece of government, puts the national interest first , in the meanwhile, reporting to oriental countries and to western countries in two completely different ways. Based on this, the objectivity and fairness of journalism will be a starting point for this research, which attempts to show that the close relationship between the media and the government will to a large extent influence the reporting of the war, and set this against the background of media theories. The research selects three influential quality newspapers as its sample and makes both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the coverage during the first part of the war, in order to examine how media in the UK, a country which is a principal participant in the war, make decisions between the government's interest and the professional rules of journalism. The conclusion is that there are some similarities and some differences to be seen in certain specific items, but overall, the coverage in the three newspapers all toes the government line when concerned with protecting the national interest. This conclusion also verifies the general applicability of the three media theories mentioned before.