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‘Infosuasion’ in European Newspapers: A Case Study on the War in Kosovo 209

Hypothesis 1.1: Press coverage followed the phases already examined in previous
studies, with a ‘downpour’ of articles occurring once the armed intervention
began.
Hypothesis 1.2: The most important perspectives were those about NATO and
armed operations in Kosovo (as being necessary, unavoidable, successful and
so on).
Hypothesis 1.3: During the week before the beginning of armed operations and
the week following, the press prepared public opinion by inviting it to accept the
idea of bombing, even without authorization of the UN.
Hypothesis 1.4: The description of events is often based on a process of simpli-
fication (e.g. Milosevic = Serbia) and on dichotomous frameworks (for example
hero/anti-hero, friend/enemy), according to Greimas’s method.
Hypothesis 2: The press ‘dramatizes’ events using language rich in figures
of speech: alliteration, calembour, quotation, euphemism, metaphor, metonymy,
oxymoron, simile.
Hypothesis 3: Using the techniques of persuasion adopted in military and polit-
ical propaganda, like ‘name calling’, the press tries to build up social images of
the characters involved, e.g. the ‘monster’ Milosevic.
Hypothesis 4: An important aspect of the process of dramatization is the use
of non-verbal components (images and layout) to underline and focus people’s
attention on the emotive aspect of what is happening.

The findings

Media logic

Looking at the coverage during the week before NATO intervention com-
menced, there are very few articles dedicated to the argument in the daily news-
papers in our sample. The data collected were divided into two subperiods
(17–22 and 23–29 March). In the first period, 179 articles were published
(20 percent of the total), while 718 were published during the second period
(80 percent).
A huge increase in the number of articles commenced on 24 March, the day
before the first aerial bombing. This is in line with the curve of growing attention
found in our earlier research project done on the Persian Gulf crisis, in particu-
lar with the stage defined as the ‘downpour’ (Savarese, 1993: 56). In first place is
Il Corriere della Sera with two news articles, one comment, a photograph and
a cartoon on the front page and nine news articles, two comment pieces,
13 photographs and two graphics in the inside pages.
The other Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, contained a news article, two com-
ment pieces and a cartoon strip on the front page. On the inside pages there were
six news articles, one comment, 14 photographs and two graphics.
Each of the British newspapers dedicated two articles and a photograph to
Kosovo on their front pages, and The Times went as far as seven articles on the
inside pages. El Pais had two articles on the aerial attacks on its front page, one