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Methods
To accomplish this study,
we used two methodologies. We conducted a content analysis for our hypotheses
and conducted a survey of active duty military personnel for our research
questions. To answer our hypotheses, we conducted a content analysis
integrating data collection and analytical techniques to measure incidence
of identifiable elements within television newscasts. The newscasts
chosen for this analysis came from the first five days of Operation
Iraqi Freedom, highlighting the major networks: ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN.
These networks were selected because they represent the bulk of news
broadcasts shown in the United States.
The analysis focused on news segments relating to military combat operations
during the opening days of the ground war in Operation Iraqi Freedom,
covering March 20 through 24, 2003. The news units were provided by
Vanderbilt University. Entire 30-minute news units were analyzed to
determine the tone of the news story and the frame employed.
The unit of analysis was the news segment reported in a newscast on
one of the four target networks, broadcast in the 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Eastern Standard Time newscast during the target dates of March 20 through
26, 2003. For the purposes of this study, a unit of analysis is defined
as a single report by a broadcast journalist about a person, unit, or
event with a clear beginning, middle, and end. For example, if an anchor
introduced a story and passed it to the embedded journalist who then
passed it back to the anchor to close the story we considered this a
single unit of analysis.
Two Department of Defense employees and a United States Forest Service
employee affiliated with the University of Oklahoma’s Joint Communication
Course conducted the coding of the news segments using a code book the
team created, shown in Appendix A. Coding norms were established during
a one-hour training session. Inter-coder reliability was achieved by
coding the news segments as a group to establish and maintain norms.
To maintain the standardization of coding, the three coders, after viewing
a segment of tape, openly discussed the units and the coding scores
applied to each segment. The discussion reaffirmed our coding training.
The independent variable used in testing our hypotheses was the television
reporter’s status as either an embedded or non-embedded asset.
This variable reflected our research focus of whether embedded journalists
produce different coverage as compared to non-embedded journalists.
An embedded journalist is defined as a journalist who was attached to
a specific unit for the purpose of reporting war events. The embedded
journalists were introduced or identified by the anchor as being an
embedded journalist. If not specifically identified as an embed, we
treated the journalist as a non-embed.
The research study included three dependent variables. The three variables
addressed overall tone, trust of the troops depicted, and episodic framing.
The first variable was the overall tone toward the military, which was
assessed using an attitude scale similar to the one employed by Pfau,
Szabo, & Anderson (2001), to assess the overall tone of the article
toward the military. According to Pfau, et al. (2001) this scale has
been used for 20 years with an alpha reliability of better than .90.
Tone was assessed via six bipolar adjective pairs, including: Positive
to negative; wise to foolish; valuable to worthless; favorable to unfavorable;
good to bad; acceptable to unacceptable (see appendix A).
The second dependent variable in our hypotheses was the trust of the
troops covered in the news reports. The individualized trust scale was
used to operationalize trust. The scale was a 5-interval metric to determine
variable ranges on the following items: trustworthy to untrustworthy;
candid to deceptive; honest to dishonest; and sincere to insincere.
This scale was used by Wheeless and Grotz (1977), who reported a split-half
reliability of .92 for the 15 item ITS, Van Leer and Trujillo (1986)
used four items from the ITS and reported an alpha of .82. These scales
determine the tone of the portrayal of military troops in the journalist’s
broadcasts.
The third dependent variable in this study was the episodic nature of
the journalist’s broadcast. We employed a 5-interval scale to
determine if a unit of analysis was more or less episodic. Episodic
was given a 5-interval scale with 5 representing more episodic and 1
representing low episodic, almost thematic. Broadcasts contain both
episodic and thematic framing. We used this to determine if embedded
journalists produce more episodic articles than non-embeds.
To answer our research questions, we enlisted the aid of Dr. Steve Everett
who used a web-based survey to reach members of the U.S. Marine Corp
and the Air Force. Quantico Network Operations provided a random survey
of 5,000 Marines. The Air Force Personnel Center provided a stratified
random sample of 5,000 members of the Air Force. Surveyed Air Force
members included 1,000 within ranks of E-1 to E-3, 1,000 within the
ranks of E-4 to E-6, 1,000 within the ranks of E-7 to E-9, 1,000 within
the ranks of O-1 to O-3, and 1,000 within the ranks of O-4 to O-6. We
have a preliminary response rate of 17 percent. To date we have received
nearly 1,400 responses back, numerous surveys have bounced back due
to inaccurate email addresses, and surveys are still being turned in.
Our response rate is expected to increase.
For our first research question, we looked at three variables to determine
military personnel’s perceptions of the tone of news coverage.
The first dependant variable was the individual member’s perception,
the second dependent variable was the military member’s sense
of other military member’s perception, and the final dependant
variable was the military member’s sense of the public’s
perception. Perceptions were assessed with three item, seven interval
scales. The measure was based on an attitude scale developed by Burgoon,
Johnson, & Koch (1998) and consists of the following items: bad/good,
negative/positive, and unfavorable/favorable (see Appendix B). We utilized
a paired sample test to develop the differences across measures.
The second research question featured a control variable and eight independent
variables. The control variable was if the military member was deployed
in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom or not. The media use variables
were the military member’s source of news for Operation Iraqi
Freedom. Media use was measured using a single seven-interval item that
measured how much coverage respondents were exposed to in the early
weeks of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Specific media use included: Civilian
TV News, Civilian Print News, Civilian Radio News, Civilian Web Sites,
Independent Publications, the Chain of Command, Internal Information
Sources, and Internal Web Sites.
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