U.S. and the Others

The 'War on Terror' declared by President George W Bush after the terrible events of September 11, 2001, has already had profound consequences on world political developments and global opinion. Media are - either actively or passively - actors in the resultant propaganda war and can as such influence public opinion.

Globalization processes imply transnational mediated flows of meaning at the same time as the perceived meanings vary between cultures and countries. That media divide globally in the coverage of the War on Terror is not only obvious when comparing American and Arab media, but also between the U.S. and Western European media. This has partly to do with the difficult demands on journalists and media as to how to manage the flood of propaganda and the threats to professional integrity and standards.

How images of the U.S. and the Others are portrayed by media in various countries after September 11 and the attack on Afghanistan is at the focus of this volume. The book contains a collection of essays by media researchers and journalists with backgrounds from a number of countries.

Content

Introduction: Media and the ‘War on Terror’
Birgitta Höijer, Stig Arne Nohrstedt, Rune Ottosen

1. Being Ignorant, Living in Manhattan
Toby Miller

2. Terror and Just Response
Noam Chomsky

3. My Beating by Refugees Is a Symbol of the Hatred and Fury of This Filthy War. A Report from Kila Abdullah after Afghan Border Ordeal
Robert Fisk

4. USA, The West and the Rest after September 11 and October 7 2001
Johan Galtung

5. Portraits of Evil. Timothy McVeigh and Osama bin Laden in Time and Newsweek
Ivar A. Iversen

6. The Newsweek War on Terrorism. A Construction of Risk
Karmen Erjavec

7. Mr. President: “The Enemy is Closer than You Might Think”
Rune Ottosen

8. ”All that is Solid Melts into Air”. How the September 11 Tragedy Was Presented in the Greek Press
Sophia Kaitatzi-Whitlock, Dimitra Kehagia

9. The Bulgarian Press and the ‘New War’. A Study of the Dailies 24 Chassa and Dnevnik
Snezhana Popova, Evelyna Vatova

10. “No Room for Neutrality”. September 11 and the Irish Times
Sean Phelan

11. Alternative Media, the ‘War on Terror’ and Northern Ireland
Greg McLaughlin, Stephen Baker

12. A Question of Partisanship? Swedish Radio on September 11
Marina Ghersetti

13. Media, Ethics and Terrorism. A Study of Swedish Media’s Ethics in Relation to September 11
C. Anders Johansson

14. Disconnection. On Mass Media and 9/11
Peter Berglez

15. Warfare and Dual Vision in Media Discourse
Elisabeth Eide

16. Afghanistan: The War and the Media
Jörg Becker

The Authors