Responding to ‘Decreasing Control’
Questions from a Framing Analysis of Print Media Accounts of Six
Contemporary Battles
1.
2.
3.
How should the ADF engage in a ‘Narrative War’?
How do we balance operational security and legitimate press oversight?
Is ‘image sensitivity’ and casualty privacy an ‘Achilles heel’?
Dr Li Ji
Dr Charles Knight
Findings from the Army Research Scheme Sponsored ‘Realities of War’ Report :
Recognising and Planning for the Decisive Role of Media on the Urban Battlefield
Research Question:
‘How does media framing
of urban combat influence
elite, public and political
public opinion, what are the
likely impacts on military
policy and how should the
military respond?
A Delphi Study and Framing
Analysis
• eight newspapers
• six urban battles
1995/6 Grozny I
2004 Fallujah I
2008 First Gaza War
1999 Grozny II
2004 Fallujah II
2014 Second Gaza War
Framing Analysis: to ‘Determine the Message’
•
•
•
•
ID and review all articles dealing with each battle
ID and categorise relevant frames (inductively and
deductively) into six main and twenty sub themes
Analyse thematic structure overall and shifts with time
Analyse rhetorical structure
–
–
–
–
–
Metaphors
Catchphrases
Depictions
Exemplars
Visual images
(Frames are the terms and ‘language packets’
that invite the reader how to understand an
issue or event (Pan & Kosicki, 1993)
Analysis of Thematic Structure
Media self-referential
Diagnosis (justification)
Human interest
Anti-war
Violence of war
Military conflict
0
100
200
300
400
500
120
Civilians
Invader&coaliation soldiers
Rebels & insurgents
Children
Increased death toll
Hostages&foreigners
Explanation of casualty figures
Destroyed Cities
Destroyed Apartments
Destroyed factories
City friendships
100
80
60
40
20
0
Casualties &
Injuries
Destruction
Main themes and ‘Violence of War sub-them in urban warfare reporting
Dominant Frames of Articles During First Fallujah
DTG Paper
20040404-0407
0408-0411
0412-0415
Fallujah encircled
blockaded strikes &
assault begin 25%
secured
Fighting erupts across Iraq.
Pressure from governing
Council forces US ceasefire on
9th
0420-0423
0424-0427
0428-0430
Insurgents control city
More incidents but
-incidents breach
ceasefire appears to
ceasefire Mosque
consolidate by 19th
bombed on 13th
Joint Iraqi-US patrols
begin
Insurgents attack US
positions on 27th. Air
strikes in response
US prepare to hand over
to ‘Fallujah Brigade’
Washing-ton Post
Diagn Diagn VInva
MVict VInva VInsu MInsu
MInsu MHalt MInsu,
Huma MTact MPrep MRela
MInsu MVict VInva
MBatt MTruc MTruc
Diagn
MInsu MInsu MInsu,
MTruc MHalt
MBatt MBatt MTruc
MInsu VCivi MInsu
VCivi
MInsu MInsu VCivi VInva
VCivi VInva MBatt VInva
MInsu
New York Times
VCivi VInva VInva
Antiw MBatt MRela MTruc
MPrep MBatt MBatt
MTruc MVict
VCivi VInva VInsu
MInsu MBatt MTruc
MInsu
MInsu VInva VInva MBatt MBatt MBatt MBatt
MBatt
MBatt, MTact
The Times
MHalt VCivi VInva
Antiw
MBatt VCivi MPrep MWarn
MPrep Diagn
MTruc Press
MBatt
MInsu VCivi
VCivi MRetr
The Guardian
Antiw VCivi Diagn
(Antiw)
(Antiw)
The Australian
Diagn
VCivi VInva MBatt VCivi
VInva
Sydney Morning
Herald
MHalt
Diagn
Huma MTact MHalt VCivi
MTact MTact
MBatt VInsu
MBatt VInva MBatt VCivi
MBatt
MInsu
MIncr
China Daily
People’s Daily.
0416-0419
MBatt VCivi MInsu
MBatt, MInsu
VInva
MBatt
MBatt
MBatt MInsu VInva
Analysis of Rhetorical Structure
Table 1. The most frequently used words (>100) in the media discourse
(Rhetorical) Depictions of Battles
1st Grozny
2nd Grozny
War/battle/
conflict
Extremely unpopular war;
massive military crime/
Ferocious battle; fierce battle
Force/soldiers/fi
ghters
Potent force
Artillery/
Tanks/weapons
/rockets
Bombs/fire
Intense artillery barrage; heavy
artillery, massive artillery
Devastating artillery; intense artillery;
huge artillery barrage
Heavy bombs; terror bombing;
indiscriminate
bombing/Devastating artillery
fire
Blistering attack, ferocious
attack/ Disastrous assault;
fiercest assault
Ceaseless bombing; restless bombing;
highly destructive vacuum bombs/Fierce
defensive fire; heavy artillery fire
Heaviest fighting/ Looting,
robbery, unmotivated killings
Heavy fighting; fierce(est) fighting; furious
street fighting; intense fighting; bitter
fighting/Antiterrorist operation;
counterterrorist operation; hazardous
operation; mopping-up operations
Attack/strike/
assault
Fighting/killing/
operations
A heated war; a long-term, low-intensity
war; painful terrorist war; A full-scale
partisan war/ Fierce battle; seesaw battle;
bloody battle; intense battle; heaviest
battle; bitter battle; fierce but stationary
battles
1st Fallujah
War on terror; Holy war against
the American invaders/ Aggressive
military actions; decisive battle;
bloody battle; bitter battle; bloody
conflict
Offensive forces
Intense attack; despicable attack; a
controlled and unstoppable attack/Fierce
assault; disastrous assault
Deadliest roadside bombing attack;
extraordinary attacks; antiAmerican attacks; hit-and-run
attacks; high-quality attack; armed
attack
Ferocious house-to-house fighting/
Offensive military operations;
aggressive operations; massive
operation; a peaceful ending to the
impasse
FOUR MAJOR FINDINGS –
FRAMING ANALYSIS AND DELPHI STUDY
Key Finding - A
• The Defence-Media relationship is troubled
• We encountered repeated intense objection to
the efforts of Defence to control information and
forestall the possibility of criticism
• We encountered the view that senior officers
have been co-opted into the political realm,
breaching trust
Key Finding – B
• The (analysed) print media are in actual effect
biased towards and relatively uncritical of
military organisations that they have an
‘identifying’ relationship with.
• The pro-status quo, pro-government and promilitary biases may superficially appear to be
helpful to the military. This is probably mistaken,
since the effect is actually a sanitised
representation of battle that allows false
impressions to develop and is fragile.
Implication: Key Finding B
• Technology, foreign and new media can reveal an
uglier narrative triggering unpredictable emotive
popular and populist responses
• This shift and ‘presumed influence’ may drive
impulsive political change of military policy
• The trend is negative
Key Finding - C
• The patterns of frames in reporting provide clear
evidence of the enormous (and presumably
increasing) pressure that contemporary military
leaders are placed under by politicians and media
• Reporting shapes operational conduct,
motivating (surprisingly)
– dubious military claims of success
– demands for truces
Key Finding - D
• ‘Indexing’ appears to focus ‘legitimate’
newsroom critique away from the political (the
why?) to the operational (the what?) and if the
military fail to engage the media effectively
– adversaries may win the narrative battle
– military leaders get scapegoated
– politicians evade democratic accountability
• Decreasing media military knowledge is an
opportunity
Key Questions
1. How should the ADF engage in the ‘Narrative War’?
–
–
–
‘Selling’ a mission as well as executing it?
‘Pre-framing’ contemporary war during peace?
Canvassing the civilian versus own soldier casualty
balance?
Engage in
–
•
•
Offensive Information Generation – delivery of compelling
narratives and technically superior news feeds?
Defensive Information Control – the denial of information feeds
from the battlespace?
Key Questions
2. How do we balance operational security and
legitimate press oversight?
– Can we still distinguish between ‘operational’ and
‘reputational-political’ security in an IO conflict?
– Given ‘civilian primacy’, is political control of
information not proper?
– What philosophical, process and technological
measures might allow journalists freedom yet
maintain operational security?
Key Questions
3. Is ‘image sensitivity’ and casualty privacy an
‘Achilles heel’?
Key Questions: Summarised
1. How should the ADF engage in the ‘Narrative War’?
–
–
–
–
‘Selling’ a mission as well as executing it?
‘Pre-framing’ contemporary war during peace?
Canvassing the civilian versus own soldier casualty balance?
engage in
•
•
Defensive Information Control – the denial of information feeds from the battlespace
Offensive Information Generation – delivery of compelling narratives and technically superior
news feeds
2. How do we balance operational security and
legitimate press oversight?
–
–
–
Can we still distinguish between ‘operational’ and ‘reputational-political’ security?
Given ‘civilian primacy’, is political control of information not proper?
What philosophical, process and technological measures might allow journalists
freedom yet maintain operational security?
3. Is ‘image sensitivity’ and casualty privacy an ‘Achilles
heel’?