The First Hours of Online Coverage of “Operation Iraqi Freedom”

President George W. Bush announced military action in Iraq on March 19, 2003, at 10:19 p.m. EST. This chapter analyzes the coverage of online news sites from around the world in response to this attack. It focuses on the immediate coverage of the event by looking at how the Iraq War was framed on the home pages of leading international news Web sites. While there were some differences in the framing of the event, the majority of the coverage focused on the military conflict frame. However, U.S. online news sites did not incorporate prognostic and responsibility issues as often as their international counterparts. Journalists around the world abstained from using value-laden terms such as “aggression” or “invasion” but often incorporated more subtle cues in their visuals and choice of themes