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Television, Public Opinion and the War in Iraq: The Case of Britain
Justin Lewis is Professor of Communication and Deputy Head of the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. He has written several books about media, culture, and society. Among his recent books is Constructing Public Opinion: How Elites Do What They Like and Why We Seem to Go Along With It, published by Columbia University Press.
Address correspondence to Justin Lewis, School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Bute Building, Cardiff University, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3NB, Wales. E-mail: LewisJ2{at}Cardiff.ac.uk
This article looks at the relationship between television coverage of the Iraq War and changes in British public opinion towards the war. During the war, television coverage helped create a climate in which pro-war positions became more relevant and plausible. This was not the result of crude forms of bias, but the product of news values which privileged certain assumptions and narratives over others. This, in turn, may assist a wider (and questionable) ideological strategy to link the war on terrorism to forms of military action, making both war and military spending more acceptable.
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