Making the case for war: A comparative analysis of CNN and BBC coverage of Colin Powell’s presentation to the United Nations Security Council

Abstract

The normative role of journalism in democracy is well established: democracy depends on news media to facilitate self-government. But theories of the press point to structural limitations that inhibit the democratic ideal. To examine this contradiction, this article offers a comparative analysis of online news coverage by CNN and BBC of Colin Powell's speech to the United Nations Security Council on 5 February 2003. Ethnographic content analysis is used to examine the coverage and to consider each outlet's broad institutional context. The article concludes that structural limitations are less of a hindrance at the BBC, which is better situated to enhance rational-critical dialogue and democratic self-governance through inclusion of a greater diversity of sources and a wider array of opinion.

How do different market-oriented news organizations portray news coverage about the CARES act?

“…A reflexive observation emerges “as one becomes immersed in relevant documents” (Altheide & Schneider, 2013, p. 27). ECA has also been effective in examining news content in studies conducted with relatively constrained sample sizes (Ashley, 2015; Canella & Ferrucci, 2020).…”

“…The search engine news.google.com is a “platform that provides useful and timely news in an aggregated fashion, allowing reaching content from many sources simultaneously” (Lago et al, 2019, p. 8), and it has become one of the most-visited online news aggregators (Newman et al, 2016). The Intercept was, moreover, not available on platforms like LexisNexis; thus, Google News has been used as a resource in comparative news research (Ashley, 2015).…”

“…Sources can also hint at consensus or dissent frames in news articles (Ashley, 2015). News in a consensus frame exhibits agreement between source discourses, whereas news in a dissent frame represents source-divergent discourses (Ashley, 2015).…”

“…Sources can also hint at consensus or dissent frames in news articles (Ashley, 2015). News in a consensus frame exhibits agreement between source discourses, whereas news in a dissent frame represents source-divergent discourses (Ashley, 2015). Diversity of speech in news media is a strategy for enacting a society's intent to preserve democracy (Christians et al, 2009).…”

A shifting enemy: analysing the BBC’s representations of “al-Qaeda” in the aftermath of the September 11th2001 attacks

“…As the nation's foremost public service institution, the BBC is required to report on terrorism-related incidents in an independent and objective manner; providing its audiences with sufficient information for them to make democratic, critically-informed decisions about the nature of the threat and how best to deal with it (BBC Online, 2015). In this sense, the BBC's role is understood as an objective cultural arbiter, delicately balancing a range of contending viewpoints (e.g., Gaber et al, 2006;Ashley, 2015). At the same time, however, the Corporation also has a statutory obligation to safeguard the fundamental democratic principles and ideological values that are required to sustain British society; providing citizens with the well-rehearsed voice of the established social and political order (Flood et al, 2011: 224).…”