Or an experiment on how not to disappear completely
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Last term paper
It's 3am and I'm writing my LAST term paper. Wow! If it wasn't for the caffeine pumping through my body, I can assure you that I would almost be able to feel the premature nostalgia. Anyway, given that this last undergraduate all-nighter is a very special event for me, I hereby grant you blogfans the chance to read the intro paragraph to my (still unfinished) last term paper:
When writing about international affairs, newspaper reporters express themselves through a particular geopolitical discourse. Their news reports use claims about geography to paint a vision of the world that situates their stories and their arguments in a specific ideological realm. Given that most popular newspapers are owned by large corporations, the geopolitical assumptions inherent in the stories they publish can be indicative of their political or economic agendas. Thus, by analyzing newspaper reporting and identifying the particular inclinations of the writers, it is possible to challenge a story’s air of objectivity and unmask the hidden bias towards a specific discourse.
In this context, the present essay will explore newspaper reporting of a military deal signed between the United States and Poland on August 14, 2008, where Poland agreed to allow the installation of American missile silo’s in its territory. The move was controversial and aroused strong criticism from the Russian government, who interpreted the deal as an affront to its national security. The first part of the essay will present a brief history of the issue. Then, the essay will analyze four news stories on the issue that were published on the same week by four different sources: The New York Times, Fox News, The Independent, and The Daily Telegraph. By deliberately choosing two American and two British sources, and a left leaning and right leaning source in each country, the essay pretends to explore geopolitical differences based on the newspapers’ ideological lines. Also, choosing articles from the same week helps to control for differences in information that may accrue when comparing stories published within a larger time frame. The essay will ultimately argue that by favoring a specific world view while marginalizing others through their geographic assumptions, each news source displays a distinct political agenda.
Thanks! And yes, haha, I guess I owe you the conclusion now:
The present essay has attempted to illustrate differences in the geopolitical discourse used by different news sources reporting on the same event. As has been discussed, each article presents a different set of priorities that guide the focus of their stories, which inevitably underplays certain aspects of the event. In this diplomatic row created by the missile defense deal between Poland and the United States, it is important to note that a Cold War rhetoric still permeates newspaper outlets when describing Russian-American relations. Moreover, generalizing claims about geography that separate the world between the West and the rest are still prevalent. If unchecked, the implications of these assumptions may be detrimental to international stability, since a revived Cold War discourse could construct new antagonisms between the former superpowers. Thus, if one is to believe that newspaper stories have the power to shape public opinion and foreign policy decisions, then it is of enormous importance to understand that, inasmuch as they carry a geopolitical bias, news stories are never neutral. In this sense, it is imperative for a society that values freedom of information and security to analyze and deconstruct the geopolitical messages in newspaper stories. Otherwise, to blindly accept a false objectivity could lead to new geopolitical quagmires.
3 comments:
Sure, leave us in suspense...! ;)
Congrats on making it through to the home stretch!
Thanks! And yes, haha, I guess I owe you the conclusion now:
The present essay has attempted to illustrate differences in the geopolitical discourse used by different news sources reporting on the same event. As has been discussed, each article presents a different set of priorities that guide the focus of their stories, which inevitably underplays certain aspects of the event. In this diplomatic row created by the missile defense deal between Poland and the United States, it is important to note that a Cold War rhetoric still permeates newspaper outlets when describing Russian-American relations. Moreover, generalizing claims about geography that separate the world between the West and the rest are still prevalent. If unchecked, the implications of these assumptions may be detrimental to international stability, since a revived Cold War discourse could construct new antagonisms between the former superpowers. Thus, if one is to believe that newspaper stories have the power to shape public opinion and foreign policy decisions, then it is of enormous importance to understand that, inasmuch as they carry a geopolitical bias, news stories are never neutral. In this sense, it is imperative for a society that values freedom of information and security to analyze and deconstruct the geopolitical messages in newspaper stories. Otherwise, to blindly accept a false objectivity could lead to new geopolitical quagmires.
Phew...I can relax now ;-)! Nicely done.
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