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American Behavioral Scientist
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Doomed to Repeat

Iraq News, 2002-2007

Robert M. Entman

George Washington University

Steven Livingston

George Washington University

Jennie Kim

U.S. Department of State

This article describes a tendency of news to isolate war policy outcomes from each other and from strategic goals and official responses. These predictable patterns of press coverage and policy developments are referred to as accountability gaps . We argue that professional norms and commercial pressures overwhelm whatever hesitancy news organizations have to alter their organizational and professional behavioral patterns that lead to predictable reoccurrences of accountability gaps. Habitual deference to White House officials means that positive frames are likely to prevail, regardless of conditions on the ground, while declining attention to the costs of war as they accumulate—and becoming less newsworthy-diminishes the weight of counterframes. As casualties and other consequences of policy in Iraq became routine, their news value diminished. As casualties became routine and other costs of war mounted in ways difficult to convey, official good news frames tended to dominate news narratives.

Key Words: Iraq War • media and war • accountability • media and foreign policy

American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 52, No. 5, 689-708 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0002764208326516
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[Abstract] [PDF]