Local newspapers key to public opinion in war

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), July, 2004

When Americans die in international incidents, it is not just the big national newspapers, but also the smaller community media that influence personal attitudes and community politics, insists University of California, Davis, political scientist Scott Gartner, who studies public opinion and its effects during war. Although global news is covered more thoroughly in national newspapers, after one of their own is killed in a foreign conflict, community newspapers allot more space and resources to focus attention on the international news surrounding the conflict, Gartner points out.

In a statistical analysis of the 2000 attack on the American naval destroyer USS Cole in Yemen, Gartner examined the geographic distribution of casualties and compared news about the incident from the corresponding newspapers with those areas where there were fewer deaths. Gartner found that people from communities that experience deaths from international conflicts have more information about foreign policy than those from areas without the casualties.

"Actions taken by the Bush Administration during the Iraqi occupation, such as prohibiting pictures of military coffins and avoiding having the President speak at memorial services, show that politicians recognize, and, in this case, attempt to manipulate, the impact of media images of military casualties," Gartner maintains.

Local media constitute a critical link between war and domestic politics, he suggests. Because local casualties affect the quantity and the quality of the information delivered, the message and the messenger are being influenced.