Propaganda and the battle for communication supremacy in the newspaper coverage of the 2005 Iraq election for a transitional national assembly

Abstract

This project analyzes for propaganda the discourse in the newspaper coverage of the 2005 Iraq election in an international context using four major newspapers from two American allies-Canada and the United Kingdom, both of which are organizationally, militarily, or corporately involved in the occupation of Iraq. Using two liberal and two conservative newspapers from each country, I evaluate critically using a combined propaganda and discourse analysis technique the themes that emerge from their election news stories, with the additional aim of comparing the differing national and ideological coverage(s) for any divergences and find a narrative consistency across national and political spectrums to this significant event. I find that propaganda is embedded in the discourse, that it turns reality on its head in order to portray the situation in Iraq in a way that is favorable to western interests, and theorize the likely purpose of propaganda in this discourse is the attempted reduction of certainty