The Effects of Media in Times of War

Throughout time and most recently, the media has been presumed to have a great impact on the way the general population forms opinions about a wide range of topics. Research shows that the media may not affect people directly, but can change their attitudes about someone or something because of the manner in which it is presented, especially highly controversial topics (Gunther & Storey, 2003; Reedy, 2003). The purpose of this study is to determine whether the media has an effect on subjects’ views on a hotly debated topic such as the Iraq War. A fifteen item questionnaire was designed to gage subject’s views about war. The first step in the research investigation was to distribute surveys to ninety undergraduate and graduate students at Nova Southeastern University. During this time, no form of intervention was conducted. In the second step, subjects were then asked to view a video clip, listen to an audio tape or read a transcript that consisted of three informational pieces about the soldiers fighting in the Iraq War. Three groups of students were separated into groups to explore the effects of the media such as the newspaper, etc. and how the effects differed according to the medium in which the information was presented. The subjects were then asked to complete the initial rearranged fifteen item questionnaire in order to gage if the subjects’ opinions had changed. Although the study is still in progress, preliminary results show that the media does not influence people’s opinions