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Call for Chapters: The
War on Iraq: Media, Politics, and Power
The War on Iraq: Media, Politics, and Power, edited
by Lee Artz and Yahya Kamalipour. Global Media Series, State
University of New York Press
This collection of essays will highlight the links between
media and politics by providing appraisals of communication
regarding the Iraq war in its politico-historical context.
The book will consider major communication events and activities
that politically and culturally prepared the world for the
U.S./U.K. military actions.
Although media practices in general follow identifiable cultural
norms and expectations, at times of crisis, political agents
and media gatekeepers modify their communication practices
in response to the changing political climate that arises
during the implementation of or contestation for power.
In the case of Iraq, the Bush administration sought domestic
public approval for the war by campaigning on several themes,
including the threat of “weapons of mass destruction,”
the gruesome nature of the Hussein regime, the possible links
between Iraq and the terrorist Al-Qaeda, and finally the patriotic
duty to support troops at risk. In contrast to the independent,
alternative press and most media around the world, the U.S.
elite media deemed the administration’s rhetorical appeals
newsworthy and accordingly gave them favorable consideration,
often dramatizing the same copy points emphasized by government
speakers. From President Bush’s announcement of the
“axis of evil,” the September launch of the Iraq
crisis, the United Nation’s Resolution 1440 on Iraq,
Colin Powell’s U.N. speech justifying intervention,
the international diplomatic negotiations among U.N. Security
Council, European Union, and Arab League members, to the refusal
of France, Russia, China, and Turkey to support military action,
the international antiwar protests of millions, and the build-up
to military intervention, elite media coverage acted and reacted
to the ongoing political struggle for international power
with noticeable allegiance to administration pronouncements.
Yet, the complex interactions among Pentagon and White House
strategists, U.N. officials, administration publicists, military
experts, journalists, talk show hosts, and international publics
cannot be easily unraveled nor fully analyzed in isolation
from the larger politico-historical and cultural context.
There will be other books recounting, critiquing, and assessing
the 2003 U.S. war on Iraq, including some addressing the role
of the media and others offering a political appraisal of
the preparation, conduct, and aftermath of the war. This book,
however, seeks a more organic, holistic explanation of the
complex connections between communication, power, and politics
in the war on Iraq.
The book will include a dozen essays (20-25 pp.) from diverse
perspectives and methodologies that address the war on Iraq
and the connections between communication and politics and
power. The selections will include rhetorical criticism, media
criticism, political economy, semiotics, cultural studies,
narrative and discourse analysis, and other critical communication
and international studies approaches.
Possible chapters/topics/themes:
Colin Powell’s Rhetorical Strategy for Europe and the
U.N.
Contrasting Coverage: Comparing Media Frames in Jordan, Lebanon,
and the U.S.
Diplomacy, Communication, and Confrontation at the U.N.
Clear Channel Radio and the Rallies for War
Fox, CNN, and MSNBC on the Front Lines of the War at Home
Patriotism, Nationalism, and Public Opinion
Generals and Anchors: Network Television’s Public Debate
Photojournalism and the New York Times
Dead or Alive: Bush’s Old West Rhetoric and the New
World Order
Journalists Embedded in US Culture: War Stories
Our Uncle’s War: Narratives of U.S. Soldiers and Antiwar
Shields
Organizing the Opposition in an Internet Age
Pre-emptive Persuasion: Foreign Policy and Public Relations
The Ideology of Preventive War
Weapons of Mass Destruction, Weapons of Mass Distraction
The Axis of Evil and the Semiotics of Good
The Spiral of Silence in a Culture of Consent
Preparing the Public: Political Cartoons as Argument
Communication and international studies scholars, researchers,
media and political analysts, journalists and other media
workers, should send one-page proposals and short biographies
by October 15, 2003 to:
Lee Artz
Department of Communication and Creative Arts
Purdue University Calumet
2200 169th Street
Hammond, IN 46323-2094
Proposals and queries may also be e-mailed
to artz@calumet.purdue.edu
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