The Gulf War myth: a study of the press coverage of the 1991 Gulf conflict

This thesis examines the UK and US press coverage of the 1991 Gulf conflict. It outlines the propaganda model of the press identified by Herman and Chomsky and, through a qualitative study of press content, examines the extent to which the predictions of the model are fulfilled in the coverage. The state systems involved are defined as new militarist and the special role played by the press in these systems is identified. In radically problematising the event, the study identifies the way in which broad historical factors (rather than any elite conspiracy) lay behind the press manufacture of the Gulf war spectacle. Interviews with journalists involved and references to many non-mainstream texts and perspectives (silenced or marginalised within the dominant ideological system) are incorporated. The thesis concludes that most of the expectations of the propaganda model were realised in the press coverage of the Gulf "war"