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Discussion
The military and the media
have always been at odds regarding access and how military operations
are reported in the news. While the military seeks to protect information
for operational reasons, the media wants to report this as news to the
public. In an unprecedented move, the Department of Defense initiated
a media embed process where select members of the media would be embedded
with certain frontline military units during wartime operations. While
the media would have access to the front line battlefield, there were
ground rules to help protect operational information. Arguments have
been raised concerning both sides of embedding policy. While the Department
of Defense, commanders, journalists and units on the ground considered
the program an overall success, others argued that journalists who are
embedded with military units lose their objectivity and become biased
in favor of the military unit they are embedded with. This research
endeavored to explore this notion.
To investigate the insinuation that embedded journalists lose their
objectivity when assigned to units, this investigation measured the
impact of embedding and whether this practice changes news reports filed
by reporters. Specifically, this study seeks to determine whether reports
originating from broadcast journalists embedded with allied forces during
the opening days of the ground war of Operation Iraqi Freedom differed
from reports filed by non-embedded broadcast journalists.
Our assumption from the beginning was that embedded journalists who
traveled and lived with members of the armed forces were assimilated
into the military way of life and developed an affinity for the troops
they were assigned with. The research looked at how the embedded reporters
may have been biased as a result of the consequences of social penetration
theory and becoming accustomed to military organizational culture, trust,
and identity characteristics. The literature reveiw came to the conclusion,
based on anecdotal evidence, that these organizational and social concepts
would result in the embedded reporters becoming integrated, trusted
team members. As a result, they would probably file news reports with
a more positive tone. To prove our anecdotal conclusion our first hypothesis
posited that compared to non-embedded reporting, embedded journalist
produced more positive coverage of military generally and its personnel.
Our literature review also looked at the degree to which episodic and
thematic framing had been used in past crisis situations like the Gulf
War and Bosnia. Our research of anecdotal evidence showed that during
the Iraq war embedded journalists used mostly episodic framing. To confirm
this conclusion our research posited a second hypothesis predicting
that compared to non-embedded reporting, embedded journalists produced
more episodically-framed stories.
The development of our hypothesis led us to an interesting question
concerning the military member’s perception of reporting coverage.
While our two hypotheses dealt with general public perception, we wanted
to find out what the military members perceived the tone of the coverage
was. To accomplish this we posed the following research question, what
are the military personnel’s perception of tone of news coverage,
their sense of other military member’s perceptions, and their
sense of the public’s perception? This research question further
led us to the question, how the military was getting their information?
To determine the information source we posited a second research question,
what was the contribution of specific communication media to the military
personnel’s perception?
To accomplish this study, we used two methodologies. We first conducted
a content analysis of news broadcasts that aired March 20 to 26, 2003
from four major television networks to assess whether broadcast news
coverage differed from embedded and non-embedded journalists. In addition,
we conducted a survey was of military members, randomly selected throughout
the Department of Defense, to gauge their perceptions of the tone of
news coverage.
In general, the result of the content analysis confirmed that film coverage
by embedded reporters was more positive toward the military and troops
than those of the embedded reporters. Additionally, reports were found
to be much more episodic in nature. This result, while not surprising,
did bring about another question for follow on research. Was the positive
coverage by the embeds a result of loss of objectivity and bias or was
it a result of a reporter being more educated on his subject and subsequently
providing a more unbiased and honest report? This question is posed
for further research.
The surveys administered to military personnel to determine their perceptions
of the tone of coverage was found to be generally positive. The surveys
also highlighted the fact that the military media was effective in forming
that opinion. While some forms of media were much more effective than
others, this research did not go to the next level to determine the
effectiveness of each media category. This question would be of interest
for further research and very useful information to military public
affairs.
Limitations
As is the case with any study, this research project was bounded by
some limitations. The limitations identified during the course of this
study include: time allotted to complete the study; a lack of experience
in conducting scientific analysis of data; the military background of
the coders.
From conception of the research topic to final product, the research
team only had three weeks to develop research mechanisms, compile and
analyze data, and write a report. Because of the short time allotted
for this project, the researchers constrained their focus to news broadcasts
of four major networks, covering only the newscasts aired during the
5:30 p.m to 6 p.m. time slot over the first few days of the ground war
of Operation Iraqi Freedom. This greatly limited the sample size, and
excluded news segments that could have delivered more significant data
to the study. By expanding the time dedicated to the research product,
and expanding the reservoir of available data, future researchers can
develop a more substantial and accurate data pool.
The researchers were all novice technicians and their lack of experience
was a significant limiting factor. The coders had disparate educational
and life experience backgrounds. The personnel assigned to this pivotal
position should be practiced and have comparable academic experience
and training (Kaid & Wadsworth, 1989). Future researchers should
use experienced coders.
A further limitation with the coders was their bias as current or former
members of the U.S. military, trained in military public affairs. This
link with the military may have biased the coder’s analysis of
the news coverage of the military. In future research, coders should
be drawn from outside the military environment.
This research project built on previous research conducted on media
coverage of embedded printed journalists.
Future research may want to investigate differences or similarities
between print and broadcast journalists.
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