Page 412 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

Propaganda Model | 1

analyzing international CoVerage as
“Paired exaMPles”: east tiMor and kuwait

In the months following the August 1990 Iraq invasion of Kuwait, the Canadian News Index
lists approximately 200 articles published in Canadian daily newspapers on the invasion.
Most of the headlines that accompanied these articles were highly sensationalistic, pur-
posefully designed to draw reader attention, such as “Kuwait Becomes ‘Wasteland’: Wit-
nesses Recall the Horror of Iraqi Murder, Pillage and Rape” and “Atrocities Ravage Kuwait as
‘Time Is Running Out.’ ” In stark contrast, Indonesia’s 1975 invasion of East Timor was accorded
an absolute low volume of news coverage within the Canadian media. The headlines reflected
the overall differences in reporting. The East Timor headlines were just as the propaganda
model would predict. Consider these two headlines, in comparison with the headlines noted
above: “Reports Conflict on Timor” (December 9, 1975) and “Envoy Begins Timor Study in
Jakarta” (January 16, 1976). The Indonesian invasion of East Timor had violated the same
two basic proscriptions of the UN Charter as had Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait: right to territory
and self-determination. The differences in treatment accorded the two cases by the Cana-
dian media reflected how differently the two cases were treated diplomatically. Following
the Iraq invasion of Kuwait, Canada went to war for the first time in 40 years. Following Indo-
nesia’s invasion of East Timor, Canada presented Indonesia with $200 million in aid and ab-
stained from voting on East Timor resolutions at the United Nations. Canada was the largest
Western investor in Indonesia in 1975, when Indonesia invaded East Timor. Canada’s strong
diplomatic and material support for Indonesia continued in the years that followed, even as
Indonesia imposed forced relocation, sterilization, and near-genocide in East Timor.

on this aspect of the model. Yet it is clear from their writing over the years, that
using the model requires an interconnected analysis that explores the interplay
among ideology, power, and social inequalities. The methodology requires that
media coverage be analyzed within the political and economic context. In his
political writing, Chomsky often moves easily between discussing media cover-
age and comparing it to the historical facts of events reporting.
The model also suggests that comparing coverage of some topics, issues, and
events, as opposed to others, may enable insight into broad patterns of media
practice. Finding observable disparities in media treatments of similar historical
events, or paired examples, also provides and level of critical insight. Coverage of
victims in the news offers such a comparative critique.

viCTims in ThE nEws: worThy or unworThy?

A central methodological technique associated with the propaganda model
entails analysis of how victims are represented within media texts. The model
predicts that worthy victims (victims of state terror enacted by official enemy
states) will be the topic of significant humanistic coverage that will evoke sym-
pathy and mobilize public opinion and outrage. Other the other hand, unwor-
thy victims (victims of state terror enacted by United States, Canada, allies, and